Joshua

The Book of Joshua] Who was a book man as well as a sword man: {a} and might well give for his motto, Ex utroque Caesar. Julius Caesar wrote his own acts; witness his learned Commentaries—for so he called them, in modesty, rather than histories; and the like did his successors, Augustus Caesar, in four books, and Adrian the Emperor, with great diligence. That Joshua himself was penman of this book, or of most part of it, is probably gathered from #Jos 24:26, and that he wrote also the end of Deuteronomy—viz., from the death of his master Moses—may be gathered from the copulative and, wherewith this book beginneth—And it came to pass, &c.; so the original hath it. See the like in #Jud 1:1 Ru 1:1 1Sa 1:1 2Sa 1:1, &c. Indeed, the whole law—so the whole Scripture—is but one copulative, say the schoolmen; and "God spake by the mouth"—not mouths—"of his holy prophets which have been since the world began." {#Lu 1:1-4} Joshua is here set forth both as a pattern to princes—far beyond Xenophon’s Cyrus or Machiavel’s Borgia—and as a type of Christ, the great Conqueror. {#Re 6:2} He had his name changed, when he was sent as a spy into Canaan, {#Nu 13:16} from Oshea to Joshua; from Let God save, to God shall save. Under the Law, which bringeth us as it were into a wilderness, we may desire and pray that there were a Saviour: but under the Gospel we are sure of salvation; and that our Jehoshua hath bound himself to fulfil all righteousness, and to land us safe at the key of Canaan, at the kingdom of heaven.

{a} Et hae ipso laudem veram meruit quod falsam contempsit. -Dion, Fulgos.

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Now after the death of Moses.]

“ Sic uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus.’’—Virgil.

The Church shall never want a champion of Christ’s own providing; but Moses shall revive in Joshua, and there shall be a succession of godly governors, till the headstone be laid with, "Grace, grace unto it." {#Zec 4:7}

That the Lord spake unto Joshua.] Not immediately, as to Moses, but some other way, {#Nu 12:7,8} probably by Urim and Thummin, as in #Nu 27:18,21. Not so to Saul {#1Sa 28:6} — for the high priest Abiathar was fled from him to David, with an ephod in his hand. {#1Sa 23:6} Similarily, Christ answered nothing to Herod, {#Lu 23:9} who had cut off the head of the Baptist, that was vox clamantis, the voice whereby he had cried.

Ver. 2. Moses my servant.] My menial servant, faithful in all my house. This was a higher title than that of king in Jeshurun. {#De 33:5} {See Trapp on "Ps 36:1"}

Now therefore arise, go.] Up, and act vigorously: surge, age, summe Pater, said Mantuan to the Bishop of Rome, stirring him up to withstand the Turk.

Go over this Jordan.] A famous river rising from a double fountain, Jor and Dan, say some, {a} and falling into the Dead Sea, with which it mingleth. Whereas some rivers will not do so: as the Danube and Sava in Hungary, whose waters meeting mingle no more than water and oil, as an eye-witness affirmeth: so the river Dee, in Merionethshire in Wales, running through Pimblemeer remaineth entire, and mingleth not her streams with the waters of the lake. {b}

{a} Sir Henry Blunt’s Voyage into the Levant, p. 10.

{b} Mr Fuller’s Holy State, p. 162.

Ver. 3. Every place that the sale, &c.] I, who am the true proprietary and lord paramount, {#Ps 24:1} do give you this land, but yet you must fight for it: and so must the saints for the heavenly Canaan.

“ Nunquam bella bonis, nunquam diserimina desunt.”

Ver. 4. From the wilderness.] Here we have the topography of the promised land, as it hath the wilderness of Arabia on the south, Mount Lebanon on the north, the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and Euphrates on the east.

All the land of the Hittites.] Those sturdiest of all the Canaanites.

Ver. 5. I will not fail thee.] This promise is five times, at least, found in Scriptures, and in #Heb 13:6, applied to all true believers. As for others, let them read that terrible text, #Eze 22:20 29:5; -"I will gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there." Lord, "leave us not," saith the Church, {#Jer 14:9} and, "Let him not leave us, nor forsake us," saith Solomon in his prayer. {#1Ki 8:57} The promises must be sued out. {See Trapp on "Heb 13:6"}

Ver. 6. Be strong and of a good courage.] This is often charged upon Joshua, though he were very valiant, and of the best mettle; because he was sure to be put to it. {a} Stand fast, for ye shall be shaken, said that prophetic Simeon in the ecclesiastical history, to the pillars which he whipped before the earthquake.

{a} “ Acer et ad palmae per se cursurus honores,

Si tamen horteris, fortior ibit equus.’’—Ovid.

Ver. 7. Only be thou strong.] {See Trapp on "Jos 1:6"}

That thou mayest observe to do.] Heb., To observe in doing; {a} as minding the manner, which either maketh or marreth any action.

According to all the law.] Integrity is the best ground of fortitude. "The spirit of power and of a sound mind," are fitly joined together by the apostle. {#2Ti 1:7} A rotten rag hath no strength; a corrupt conscience no true courage. See #Pr 28:1.

That thou mayest prosper.] Or, Do wisely; {b} for a good man ordereth his affairs with discretion, {#Ps 112:5} and speedeth accordingly for most part. Gaius’s prosperity he is sure of. The prudent person cannot be unprosperous. Of Cato, Censorius Paterculus saith, {c} that being homo virtuti simillimus semper fortunam in sua potestate habuit, a very virtuous man, he had what fortune soever he pleased. Scipio Africanus was wont before day to go into the capitol in cellam Iovis, and there to stay a great while, as it were to consult with Jupiter, concerning the government of the commonwealth: whence his deeds were plaeraque admiranda, saith Gellius, most of them very admirable and successful. {d}

{a} Ut cum observantia facias. -Trem.

{b} Prospere et provide aliquid agere, significat.

{c} Lib. ii.

{d} Gell., lib. vii. cap. 1.

Ver. 8. This book of the law shall not depart.] Lex sola omnis sapientiae fons est. The Scripture is the only fountain of all wisdom, saith Luther: {a} who in the same place affirmeth, that he hated his own writings, and wished they were all burnt, because he feared that the reading of them kept men from reading the Bible, that book of books, in comparison whereof all other books are but as waste paper. Charles V, emperor, liked to read three books especially, -Polybius’s history, Machiavel’s Prince, and Castalian’s Courtier. He took such delight in the mathematics, that even in the midst of his whole army, in his tent, he stayed close at this study; having for that purpose, as his instructor, Turrianus of Cremona evermore with him. How well versed he was in the Scriptures, I know not, but at his baptism, among other great gifts bestowed upon him by his father’s friends—as a golden sword, a silver head piece, a charger of gold filled with pearls, &c.—the Abbot of Gaunt, where he was born, gave him a fair Bible with this inscription, scrutamini Scripturas, search the Scriptures. {b} Queen Elizabeth, soon after her coronation, being presented by the Londoners in Cheapside with a Bible, received it with both her hands; and kissing it, laid it to her breast, saying, that the same had ever been her chiefest delight, and should be the rule by which she meant to frame her government. {c} Alphonsus, king of Arragon, is said to have read over the Bible fourteen times with Lyra’s notes. And Charles the Wise of France, not only caused the Bible to be translated into French, but was himself very studious in "the holy Scriptures, which are able to make" a man "wise to salvation."

For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.] Piety hath prosperity. {See Trapp on "Jos 1:7"}

{a} Luth., in Genes.

{b} Bucholc., Ex Zenocaro.

{c} Speed’s Chron.

Ver. 9. Be strong and of a good courage.] Joshua was not faint hearted, but lowly minded: and hence he is so often cheered up and encouraged to the work. See on #Jos 1:6.

Ver. 10. Then Joshua.] After the spies were returned. {#Jos 2:23}

Ver. 11. Prepare you victuals.] Beside the manna, that cibus praeparatus, { a} as the word man signifieth; food prepared for them by God. See #De 2:6.

{a} Paratum aliquid ad edendum. -Martinius, in Lexico.

Ver. 12. And to the Reubenites, ] i.e., To the rulers of their tribes, who were their representatives.

Ver. 13. Remember the word.] Your engagement to Moses, #Nu 32:17,22.

“ Pollicitis dives quilibet est potest.”

Ver. 14. All the mighty men of valour.] All beside a necessary guard for your country and families. See #Nu 32:2.

Ver. 15. Until the Lord have given your brethren rest.] Whose welfare you are to tender no less than your own.

“ Et toti genitos vos credere genti.”

Ver. 16. And they answered.] Not the two tribes and half only, but the whole people promise homage and fidelity to Joshua, and wish well to his government.

All that thou commandest us.] A promise as large as that of Laelius in Lucan made to Caesar,

“ Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quam posse necesse est.”

Ver. 17. Only the Lord thy God be with thee.] For else we shall stand thee and our brethren but in small stead.

As he was with Moses.] Who never miscarried in any enterprise.

Ver. 18. Only be strong and of a good courage.] Here Vox populi accordeth Vox Dei: this was a further confirmation. See #Jos 1:6.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim.] Where the people then encamped, {#Nu 33:49} and where the Midianites sometime, by the counsel of Balaam, Satan’s spell man, outwitted the Israelites by setting fair women before them, who soon drew them into those two sister sins, idolatry and adultery. {#Nu 25:1,2,18}

Two men.] Not twelve, as #Nu 13:2,3, for those were too many by ten; and did much harm among the people.

To spy secretly.] Heb., Silently. Silence is oft no small virtue; and he is a rare man who can both keep and give counsel.

Go view the land.] Of which though God had promised to possess them, yet Joshua knew that means was to be used. So #2Sa 5:24. David had a promise of victory over the Philistines; but yet so as that he must fetch a compass behind them; and when he heard "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberries," then he was to bestir himself.

Into a harlot’s house.] Or, Hostess, as some render it; but such as stuck not familiarly to entertain strangers. {#Heb 11:31 Jas 2:25} Upon her conversion she was advanced to become grandmother to Jesus Christ; who by his purity washeth off all our spots; like as the sun washeth and wipeth away all the ill vapours of the earth and air.

Ver. 2. And it was told the king of Jericho.] Kings have long ears; their ωτακουσται, informers and intelligencers, are in all places, but especially when Hannibal est ad portas, the enemy is at hand, as now he was.

To search out the country.] As we have cause to conceive. Optimus in dubiis agur timor.

Ver. 3. For they be come to search out all the country.] "To see the nakedness of the land," as #Ge 42:9. {See Trapp on "Jos 2:2"}

Ver. 4. And the woman took the two men, and hid them.] This was an act of her praiseworthy faith. See #Heb 11:31, where it is honourably mentioned, but nothing is said of the lie she told. God layeth the finger of mercy on the scars of our sins; as that painter in the story.

But I wist not whence they were.] This was no better than an officious lie: yea, four lies she here uttereth together in a breath, -as Jacob also did three, {#Ge 27:19-24}—neither can she be excused. That was a worthy speech of a good woman on the rack, as Jerome relateth it, Non ideo negare volo ne peream: sed ideo mentiri nolo, ne peccem. But Rahab was yet but a new convert.

Ver. 5. And it came to pass.] See #Jos 2:4.

Ver. 6. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house.] {a} Which was built flat in those parts, as they are also at this day in Italy.

Which she had laid in order upon the roof.] That it might be fully dried, as {#Na 1:10} the wicked are, that they may burn the better: like grapes, they ripen in the sunshine, for the winepress of God’s wrath. {#Re 14:19}

{a} Septuag., δωμα: ut et #1Sa 9:25.

Ver. 7. And the men pursued.] Not once searching the house. Thus God "maketh the wisdom of the wise to perish." {#Isa 29:14} See #Mt 2:8. Herod went not himself, or sent some assassin to despatch the child Jesus; but sent the wise men to Bethlehem with charge to search, and bring him word. The Dutch have a proverb, Where God intendeth to blind any man, he first closeth up his eyes.

Ver. 8. And before they were laid down, ] so., To take their rest, which in this fright they had little list to. "Sleep on now, take your rest," saith our Saviour by an irony to his drowsy disciples; q.d., Do so, if you can at least, now, with so many swords and halberds about your ears. {#Mr 14:41}

Ver. 9. I know that the Lord hath given you the land.] She had a full assurance both of knowledge, {as #Lu 1:1} and of faith, {as #Heb 6:10 11:31} when many Israelites staggered and distrusted the promise. "God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy," &c. {#Ro 9:15,18}

Ver. 10. For we have heard.] Historiae fidae monitrices. Succurrat illud…Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur.

Ver. 11. For the Lord your God, he is God.] As for our idols, they are very vanities, and cannot deliver us. The Tyrians, afraid their Apollo should forsake them at that time when Alexander besieged their city, chained and nailed that idol to a post, that they might be sure of it; but all would not do.

Ver. 12. And give me a true token.] Συσσημον, as #Mr 14:44. Signum consignans, de composito datum. As for the familiar conference that here passed betwixt these spies and Rahab, we need not question how they could so easily understand one another, being of two several nations. For, first, the language of the Canaanites, Phoenicians, Philistines, differed not much from the Hebrew, which Jerome {a} rightly calleth Omnium linguarum matricem, the mother tongue. See Plautus in "Paenulo," act v. And then, it is not unlikely that these spies had learned the language of Canaan, by conversing with those conquered Amorites on this side Jordan.

{a} In cap. iii. Sophoniae.

Ver. 13. And that ye will save alive.] Man is ζωον φιλοζωον, a creature that would fain live, said Aesop. Quis vitam non vult? said Augustine. The Gibeonites were desirous to live upon any terms. {#Jos 9:3-14} Rahab’s greatest care was for her kindred, because unconverted. Augustine professeth that he would not for the gain of a million of worlds be an atheist for half an hour: because he knew not but God might in that time call him to account.

Ver. 14. If ye utter not this our business.] On this condition we assure thee of safety. God’s promises also are with a condition, which is as an oar in a boat, or stern of a ship, and turneth the promise another way.

Ver. 15. For her house was upon the town wall.] In an obscure nook, among the poorer sort of people: for this harlot Rahab had not got such an estate as Phryne had, who offered at her own charge to repair the ruined walls of Thebes, if these words only might have been inscribed on them, "Alexander overturned these walls, and Phryne set them up again." {a}

And she dwelt upon the wall.] Where Providence had placed her for such a purpose as this: for it is God that appointeth the bounds of men’s habitations. {#Ac 17:26}

{a} Ο μεν Αλεξανδρος κατεσκαψε, η δε φρυνη ανωκοδο μησεν.

Ver. 16. Get you to the mountain.] This, say some, was spoken after the men were down, in the still of the night, without the wall. {#Jos 2:18} But what a fool was he who said, Μισω σοφην γυναικα, I hate a discreet woman!

Ver. 17. We will be blameless of this thine oath, ] q.d, Great haste though we have, yet will we clear up the terms whereunto we have sworn, to prevent the danger or rebut the suspicion of perjury. An oath is not to be taken but with a great deal of caution and circumspection, {#Ge 24:3-5} not in jest, but in judgment, {#Jer 4:2 Isa 48:1} not rashly and unadvisedly, {#Le 5:4 1Sa 14:39,44} as those that swear in heat and choler, when they should with fear, {#De 10:20} discerning the nature of an oath, the necessity, the conditions and circumstances.

Ver. 18. And thou shalt bring thy father, &c.] Who, if not there found when we storm the town, shall perish at their own peril. So shall all not found to be of the family of faith, and within God’s doors. The devil sweeps all that are out of the covenant.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. And Joshua rose early in the morning, ] viz., Of the ninth day of the first month, called Abib; as on the tenth day {#Jos 4:19} -which was the day wherein the paschal lamb was set apart—the Israelites entered the land of Canaan under the command and conduct of Joshua, who was a type of Jesus Christ, by whom we have "the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." {#Eph 1:14}

Removed from Shittim.] In the plains of Moab. See #Jos 2:1.

Ver. 2. After three days, ] i.e., Three days after that they were commanded to provide victuals. {a} {#Jos 1:11}

{a} A mandato illo de parando viatico. -Trem.

Ver. 3. When ye see the ark of the covenant.] Which represented that angel of the covenant, Christ Jesus.

And the priests the Levites bearing it.] The Koathites properly and ordinarily did this office, {#Nu 3:31} which as it had more honour, so more burden and danger. {#Nu 4:15}

“ Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris onus.”

And go after it.] God must and may be followed without peril. Magnus est animus qui se Deo tradidit, saith Seneca.

Ver. 4. Yet there shall be a space.] That you may know the distance, and show your reverence. See #Ex 19:12. As also,

That you may know the way by which you must go, ] i.e., Ut ignari vice tuto vado transire possitis, that ye may have a sure and safe passage through the river discovered unto you.

Ver. 5. Sanctify yourselves.] By ceremonial and spiritual purifications, doing your utmost to bring your hearts to a holy temper, that ye may make the best of the ensuing miracle.

Ver. 6. And went before the people.] To the further side of the river, say some; to the middle only, say others, {as #Jos 3:17} the pillar of cloud still going before them for a guide, as some conceive, but others doubt.

Ver. 7. This day will I begin to magnify thee, ] viz., In the esteem of the people. It is God that giveth honour; he fashioneth men’s opinions: he caused that "whatsoever David did pleased the people."

Ver. 8. Ye shall stand still in Jordan.] "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord which he will show you today," as #Ex 14:13. Believe and prosper: consent and obey, and ye shall eat the good things of the land.

Ver. 9. Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God.] For miracles do but excite men; they do but as the bells that call us to the sermon, they cannot work faith in us: but faith cometh by hearing.

Ver. 10. Hereby ye shall know that the living God.] "Living" and "giving," as #1Ti 6:17. "Trust in the living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy."

The Canaanites, and the Hittites, &c.] To these seven were those ten nations {#Ge 15:19} reduced, belike, either by mixture, or diminution of some of them.

Ver. 11. Behold the ark of the covenant, even the Lord of heaven and earth.] Where the ark is, and where the ordinances are, there God is: hence the ark is called God’s face, {#Ps 105:4} yea, God’s self. {#Ps 132:5}

Ver. 12. Now therefore take you twelve men, ] i.e., Now make choice of them for that service afterwards to be performed. {#Jos 4:4} Potior est testis oculatus unus quam auriti decem. {a}

{a} Plaut.

Ver. 13. That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off.] A wonderful work of God, and much admired by the psalmist; {#Ps 114:3,5} as was that—and worthily if it were true—by the philosopher, when from the hill Etna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout; in the midst of those fearful flames, God’s special care of the godly, saith he, shined most brightly: ο γαρ πυρος ποταμος εξεχισθη, for the river of fire was divided, and a kind of lane made for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents, and pluck them out of the jaws of death. {a}

{a} Aristot., De Mundo, cap. vi.

Ver. 14. And it came to pass.] In #Jos 3:13 it was, "And it shall come to pass." "The word of God cannot be broken"; {#Joh 10:35} all must be fulfilled that is foretold.

Ver. 15. For Jordan overfloweth his banks.] Ordinarily every year; either ex fiuminis natura, { a} by the nature of this river, {see #1Ch 12:15} as it is also of the Nile, {b} or else by the melting of the snow from the mountains: the like whereunto befalleth Tigris and Euphrates.

At the time of harvest.] Barley harvest. Compare #Le 23:10. So that the Israelites were brought into the land at the best time. And "herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth." {#Joh 4:37}

{a} Tremell.

{b} Perinde at Nilus messis tempore alveos excedens et exundans maltum terrae irrigat .— Aristeas.

Ver. 16. That is beside Zaretan.] A city in the tribe of Ephraim, {#1Ki 4:12 7:46} called also Zererath in #Jud 7:22, and Zereda in #1Ki 11:26.

Failed, and were cut off.] Quickly perished in the lake Asphaltites, or Dead Sea, Tanquam si repente fuissent dissectae gladio, ut #Job 6:15, as if they had been suddenly cut in twain with a sword, {a}

And the people passed over.] Not by bridges or boats, but on foot, dry shod, though in such an inundation.

Right over against Jericho.] The place being therehence called Bethabara, as some think, {#Joh 1:28} or Traiectum, the place of passage. Here baptism was first administered, {#Joh 1:28} where it had been foreshadowed. Christ is the true Bethabara. {#Eph 2:18}

{a} Tremell.

Ver. 17. And all the Israelites passed over.] He was a bold Israelite that first set foot on the water: but no "Israelite indeed" need fear to pass through corporal death, having the ark of God’s covenant in his eye, to take possession of the heavenly Canaan.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when all the people.] Heb., All the nation; Goi, so the Israelites are here and elsewhere called. The Jews, then, have no reason to reproach Christians by that name, calling us Goiim and Mamzer Goiim, bastardly heathens.

Were clean passed over.] Without the least opposition of the Canaanites, who were intimidated and infatuated.

Ver. 2. Out of every tribe a man.] For the two tribes and half planted beyond Jordan were also concerned, as being of the same body and way of worship. See #Jos 22:30.

Ver. 3. Twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you.] This is an ancient and commendable practice, by lasting monuments to propagate and perpetuate the memory of special mercies and signal deliverances; to set up some marks and mementoes upon them, that they grow not stale or moth eaten. To this end were those new names of places, Bethel, Penuel, Gilgal, Eben Ezer, Ramath Lehi, Berachah, &c. This is the best art of memory, and a very good means both to prevent Satan—who striveth to obliterate God’s great works, or else to alienate and translate them upon himself, -to excite ourselves to duty—for it fortifieth faith, feedeth hope, nourisheth joy, -and to do good to posterity. {#Ps 48:13 102:18}

Ver. 4. Then Joshua called, &c.] See #Jos 4:2 3:12.

Ver. 5. Before the ark of the Lord your God.] A God in covenant with you, and who therefore may well expect this or any other service from you.

Ver. 6. That this may be a sign.] We stand in need of all helps. The Israelites had their fringes and phylacteries to immind them; and of all things, God cannot abide to be forgotten. {#Ps 9:16,17}

Ver. 7. The waters of Jordan were cut off.] And again the waters of Jordan were cut off. Good things must be whetted and inculcated upon our children. {#De 6:7} {See Trapp on "De 6:7"}

Ver. 8. And the children of Israel did so, ] i.e., The twelve select men, representing the whole people.

Ver. 9. And Joshua set up twelve stones.] Besides the first twelve: Gaudet produci haec solennitas, as Augustine said at the feast of Pentecost. So Hezekiah and the people kept other seven days. {#2Ch 30:23}

And they are there unto this day.] Id est, immutabili et perpetuo statuto, saith Junius: By an immutable and perpetual statute.

Ver. 10. Until everything was finished.] They would not off the ground till the work was done; but by a heroical faith, there held them, when others feared and therefore hasted away.

And the people hasted and passed over.] Partly through desire of the promised land, but principally through fear of danger, by those hideous mountains of water which hung over their heads: a ghastly sight surely.

Ver. 11. That the ark of the Lord passed over.] That it might be both van and rear. "For ye shall not go out with haste" (it was weakness of faith that made this people to do so), "nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward." {#Isa 52:12}

Ver. 12. As Moses spake unto them.] Indented with them. {#Nu 32:20,27} Dilexi hominem: I loved the man, said Ambrose concerning Theodosius, because he was no less solicitous of the Church’s welfare after his decease than whilst he lived.

Ver. 13. Passed over before the Lord.] As in his sight and presence, approving to him their hearts and practices.

Ver. 14. The Lord magnified Joshua.] See #Jos 3:7.

Ver. 15. And the Lord spake unto Joshua.] See #Jos 1:1.

Ver. 16. Command the priests.] They would not stir out of their station till God called them off. It is good to do all by a warrant. To be out of God’s precincts is to be out of his protection.

Ver. 17. Come ye up out of Jordan.] Now that all the people are in safety; and stand upon the bank to behold the last act of this great miracle.

Ver. 18. And it came to pass, when the priests, &c.] Not till then: as till Methuselah was deceased, the flood could not come; till Lot was housed in Zoar, Sodom could not be overthrown, &c. "He that walketh uprightly, walketh safely."

And flowed over.] Heb., Went, sc, leisurely, and by degrees, according to God’s disposal and appointment.

Ver. 19. On the tenth day of the first month.] {See Trapp on "Ex 12:3"}

Ver. 20. And those twelve.] See #Jos 4:3.

Ver. 21. See #Jos 4:6,7.

Ver. 22. See #Jos 4:6,7.

Ver. 23. From before you.] Who were then in our loins, or so young that you could not be affected with it.

As the Lord your God did to the Red Sea.] Upon the review of a present mercy we should recognise former favours. Those that had passed through the Red Sea, as Caleb and Joshua, were now the less afraid of passing through Jordan. So those that have gone through the baptism of repentance and regeneration, will not fear to pass through death into heaven.

Ver. 24. That all the people of the earth might know.] And acknowledge God’s power and providence: for at his own glory he aimeth in all his actions, and at the good of his people.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Heard that the Lord, &c.] Αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις: Ill news is swift of foot, and, like ill weather, cometh before it is sent for.

That their heart melted.] This fearfulness and faintheartedness had utterly unmanned them, expectorated all their courage, and so fitted them for desolation. {#De 28:7} Metals melted lose their hardness: so men their hardiness by fear, that cowardly passion.

Ver. 2. Make thee sharp knives.] Heb., Knives of edges, or knives of flints, cultros lapideos (so one rendereth it) id est, cote acutos.

And circumcise again the children of Israel the second time, ] viz., Those that yet are uncircumcised: for they could not be twice circumcised, unless by drawing up the foreskin with a surgeon’s instrument, any of them had made themselves again uncircumcised, as the Rabbis say Esau had; and as some Jews had done for fear of Antiochus. {#/APC 1Ma 1:15} But here it is rather to be understood of such as, during their abode in the wilderness, had intermitted this ordinance; and God had dispensed with them because of their frequent and sudden removes. Vatablus’s note here is very good, Transierunt filii Israel Iordanem incircumcisi ne hoc suae circumcision et meritis tribuerent: The Israelites passed over Jordan uncircumcised, that they might not attribute it to their circumcision and merits. Another well notes, that by this seal of the covenant with Abraham, God did now notably confirm their faith in the promise of both the earthly and heavenly Canaan.

Ver. 3. And Joshua…circumcised.] That is, he caused them to be circumcised, viz., by the priests, whose office it was properly: or, by those others, that being under twenty years of age at their coming out of Egypt, had been circumcised before. The Jews at this day count it the most meritorious thing that can be, to be a good circumciser. {a}

At the hill of the foreskins.] Heb., Gibeah haaraloth, where they cast away and buried their foreskins; whereby was signified that that which was begotten by that, part deserved in like sort to be cut off, and thrown away as execrable and accursed.

{a} Leo Modena.

Ver. 4. Died in the wilderness by the way.] There their carcasses fell for their rebellion; and a new generation rose up which were now to be circumcised, that they might be in case to keep the passover.

Ver. 5. Now all the people that came out were circumcised, ] i.e., As many as feared the Lord and believed Moses: for a great sort of them, by their long abode in Egypt, were much infected with idolatry and profaneness. {#Eze 20:7 23:3,9}

Ver. 6. For the children of Israel walked forty years.] This way and that way, backward and forward, as if they were treading a maze; and this, for the punishment of their revolt. {#Nu 14:33}

With milk and honey.] With plenty of dainties.

For they were uncircumcised. Who yet, together with the circumcised, were brought by Joshua into the promised land: so are both sorts by Jesus into the kingdom of heaven. See #Eph 2:14 Col 3:11.

Ver. 8. They abode in their places in the camp till they were whole.] In confidence of God’s protection, who both secured them meanwhile from their enemies, {see #Ge 34:25,26} and soon healed them; for else how could they have, four days after, kept the Passover with joy?

Ver. 9. This day have I rolled away the reproach, &c.] That is, the uncircumcision of your flesh, {see #1Sa 17:26 Ge 34:16 Php 3:4,5} together with all that filth and guilt which you have contracted by conversing with those superstitious and wicked Egyptians. "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." {#Pr 14:34} God had now restored to Israel the sweet seal of his covenant, pardoning them what was past; and they had herein bound themselves to abandon their sins, and to obey God’s precepts. So doth the baptized Christian; {see #Col 2:11-13} who should therefore never step out of doors, saith Chrysostom, or lie down in his bed, or go into his closet, but he should remember those two words, Abrenuncio, Credo, I forsake the devil, &c. I believe in Christ: I bear his badge, I wear his livery.

Ver. 10. And kept the Passover.] Which it seemeth they had not done for a long time before. See #Nu 9:1,2. So that they were without the use of those two standing sacraments during their abode in the wilderness; peradventure, saith one, {a} through a profane carelessness of the people, which God punished by suffering them to go on in their sin without admonishing, or reproving them for it.

{a} Diodorus.

Ver. 11. On the morrow after the Passover.] That holy sacrament was αλεξητηριον καθαρτικον, to those believers, sanctifying those outward comforts to their use. "To the pure all things are pure."

Ver. 12. And the manna ceased.] So do miracles where are store of other means. He that now calleth for miracles, is himself a miracle, saith Augustine.

Ver. 13. He lifted up his eyes.] His vigilancy did equal his valour, as it is said of Caesar.

With his sword drawn.] This sword the Lord Christ never laid down, since those words, "I will put enmity also," &c., {#Ge 3:16} for there beginneth the book of the wars of the Lord, for defence of his Church.

And Joshua went unto him.] Though armed and of a majestic presence, and though there might have been snares laid for him.

Ver. 14. Nay; but as captain.] Commander-in-chief of all creatures, and captain also of his people’s salvation. {#Heb 2:10}

Ver. 15. Loose thy shoes.] Deny thyself wholly, and put thy confidence in my power and prowess. Frustra nititur qui Christo non innititur. Among the Turks no man may come into the church, besides the Grand Seignior, with his shoes on, but must leave them at the door, or give them to their servants to keep. {a}

{a} Grand Sign. Serag., 195.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. Now Jericho was strictly shut up.] Claudens, et clausa erat: but there is no power or policy against the Lord. {#Pr 21:30} The "Captain of God’s hosts" was before the city, and therefore ευαλωτος η πολις, -as he told Phocas, -the town was soon taken.

Ver. 2. And the Lord said.] The man Christ Jesus, {#Jos 5:13} that man of war. {#Ex 15:3} "Jehovah is his name": "Jehovah, mighty in battle," {#Ps 24:8} whose "weakness is stronger than men." {#1Co 1:25}

Ver. 3. And ye shall compass the city.] At a just distance, no doubt, that ye may be extra iactum. See #2Sa 11:20,21.

Thus shalt thou do six days.] All which time God held them in request: and exercised their faith and patience.

Ver. 4. Seven trumpets of rams’ horns.] God usually goeth a way by himself, and worketh his will by such means as the world judgeth absurd and ridiculous.

And the seventh day.] Which, probably, was the Sabbath day, wherein, "by the foolishness of preaching," God still overturneth the strongholds of Satan, {#2Co 10:4} by the priests blowing with their trumpets.

Ver. 5. When they make a long blast.] Importing the triumph of their trust, the victory of faith: for it was by faith that these walls fell. {#Heb 11:30}

And the wall of the city shall fall down flat.] Corruet subtus se, that is, absorbebitur a terra, saith Vatablus, it shall be swallowed up of the earth.

Ver. 6. And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests.] He yielded prompt and present obedience, ready and speedy, without shucking or hucking, without delays and consults; leaving us herein an excellent precedent.

Ver. 7. And let him that is armed.] Those two tribes and a half especially. {#Jos 1:14 4:12,13}

Ver. 8. And the ark of the covenant.] Called also the ark of the testimony. {#Jos 4:16 Ex 25:16}

Ver. 9. And the rereward came after the ark.] Heb., The gathering host, that in their march through the wilderness was wont to arise at the fourth alarm, and their charge was to look that nothing was left behind. {#Nu 10:25} {See Trapp on "Ps 27:10"}

Ver. 10. Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise.] Turcae perpetuum silentium tenent, ut muti. {a} The Turks, though when they storm a place they make hideous outcries, yet in their camp they are marvellously mute; being no otherwise commanded than by the beckoning or nod of their commanders. {b} This was worthily wondered at by King Ferdinand’s ambassadors.

{a} Cuspin., De Caesarib.

{b} Turk. Hist., 715.

Ver. 11. So the ark of the Lord compassed the city.] The inhabitants marvelling, doubtless, what they meant by their tracing and circuiting.

Ver. 12. And Joshua rose early in the morning.] A little sleep served his turn:—

“Ου χρη παννυχιον ευδειν βουληφορον ανδρα’’—Homer

Ver. 13. And seven priests bearing seven trumpets.] Here were many sevens, as also in the Revelation. Many mysteries throughout the Scriptures are set forth by this number: the Hebrew word signifieth fulness.

Ver. 14. And the second day.] See #Jos 6:3,11.

Ver. 15. They compassed the city seven times.] In sign, saith one, {a} that the perseverance and continuance in faith and the actions thereof, at last obtaineth the victory: and that the nearer the end of the combat is, the more ought the faithful man to bestir him therein.

{a} Diodorus.

Ver. 16. Shout.] To show your faith, to encourage one another, and to terrify the enemy.

Ver. 17. And the city shall be accursed.] Anathematised, proscribed, devoted to destruction, offered up to God as a holocaust, whose pleasure it was that this people should be thus hanged up in gibbets, as it were, for a terror to the rest, who might hereby see what to trust to if they stubbornly stood out. The whole land was filled with the filthiness of the people from one end to another; {#Ezr 9:11} and might not God begin to punish where he pleased

Ver. 18. Keep yourselves from the accursed thing.] This was a fair warning to that foul sinner Achan; but Δεινος και παντολμος της φιλοχρηματιας ερως, covetousness is deadly, daring, and desperate, saith Isidor Pelusiot. {a}

{a} Lib. iii. epist. 24.

Ver. 19. But all the silver and the gold.] Only their idols of silver and gold were to be utterly destroyed, {#De 7:25 Ex 32:20} for detestation’s sake, and prevention of idolatry, that land desolating sin.

Ver. 20. So the people shouted.] See #Jos 6:16.

The wall fell down flat.] See #Jos 6:5. So shall all our corruptions; in subduing whereof, though the Lord require our daily eudeavours during the six days of this life, yet it will never be fully done till the very time of death, which will be the accomplishment of our mortification.

Ver. 21. And they utterly destroyed all.] So God had commanded them; {#De 20:16,17} and the iniquity of these Amorites was now full. {#Ge 15:16} Let us look upon these writs of execution recorded in Scripture, and be warned.

Ver. 22. As ye sware unto her.] Romanis promittere promptum est: promissis autem, quanquam iuramento firmatis, minime stare, said Mirchanes, the Persian general in Procopius. {a} But Joshua was none such.

{a} Lib. i., De Bell Persic.

Ver. 23. And left them without the camp.] Lest it should be defiled by them, till they were proselyted. See #Nu 31:19.

Ver. 24. And they burnt the city.] In obedience to God, though they had need enough to have done otherwise. But men must silence their reason and exalt their faith.

Ver. 25. Even unto this day.] When this story was written, she was a great lady in Israel, being married to Salmon.

Ver. 26. Cursed be the man.] And yet there was found a man that durst rebuild it, {#1Ki 16:34} as if he would despitefully spit in the face of Heaven, wrestle a fall with the Almighty.

In his firstborn.] God’s hand was very heavy upon William the Conqueror in his issue, for his depopulations in New Forest. {a}

{a} Speed, p. 445.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. But the children of Israel committed.] All were involved, because of the same body politic: and every man is bound to be his brother’s keeper, to see that the law be not only observed but preserved: since one sinner may destroy much good. {#Ec 9:18} Propter contagionem peccati. {a}

For Achan, the son of Carmi, &c.] He was well descended, but became a stain to his ancestors by his covetousness, which was the worse in him, because he had, of his own, oxen, asses, sheep, &c. {#Jos 6:24 Pr 6:30} The devil knew his temper, felt which way his pulse beat, and accordingly fitted him with an object, set a prize before him: hence he is called "the tempter" {#Mt 4:3}

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.] Who all smarted for this one man’s sin: as the neck is seared and rowled oft for the rheum that runneth down into the eyes: and as a vein is opened in the arm to turn the course of the blood, or to ease the pain of the head.

{a} Propter arctam coniuactionem.

Ver. 2. To Ai.] Called elsewhere Hai, and Aija; {#Ge 12:8 Ne 11:31} by the Septuagint, Gae; by Sulpitius, Geth.

Which is beside Bethavon, on the east side of Bethel.] This Bethel, when Jeroboam had defiled it with his idolatry, is in scorn called Bethaven, the house of vanity. {#Ho 4:15 10:5 2Ki 23:13} Har hamishca, Mount Olivet, is for the like cause called in derision Har hamaschith, the Mount of Corruption.

Ver. 3. Let not all the people go up.] But better they had, as it happened, in some respects. God’s holy hand was in it, and his holy will must be done and suffered.

Ver. 4. And they fled before the men of Ai.] Their sins having betrayed them into the hands of divine justice, the victory was abandoned, and sent away to the enemy; as that noble General Trajan told Valens, the Arrian emperor, when he had been defeated by the Goths in the very first battle, as these Israelites also were. {a}

{a} Niceph., lib. xiii. cap. 40.

Ver. 5. And the men of Ai smote of them.] Not in fight, but in flight; for they stood not out the first shock.

“ A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.”

Even unto Shebarim, ] i.e., A place of breakings or shiverings: this made them "sick at heart," according to #Am 6:6. {See Trapp on "Am 6:6"}

Wherefore the hearts of the people melted.] They were not more discomfited than discouraged: because they saw that God was displeased, and for the time departed. A little water in a leaden vessel is very heavy: so is a small affliction from an offended Father. "Be not thou a terror to me," saith Jeremiah, {#Jer 17:17} and then I care not greatly what befalleth me.

Ver. 6. And Joshua rent his clothes.] In token that his heart was rent with grief and anguish.

“ Sic faciles motus mens generosa capit.”

Baron Marshal of France and other profane men derided the Earl of Essex’s prayers and tears at his death, as more befitting a silly minister than a stout warrior: {a} as if the fear of God’s wrath were not a Christian man’s fortitude. Joshua was man good enough, and yet, &c.

Until the eventide.] So long they continued their fast. Let our fasts be, according to that old canon, Usque dum stellae in caelo appareant, till the stars appear in the sky. The Turks hold out their fasts so long, in the hottest and longest days of summer, not tasting so much as a cup of water. {b}

{a} Camden’s Elisab.

{b} Turk. Hist.

Ver. 7. Alas! O Lord God, wherefore, &c.] This expostulation, though of a good intention, is not altogether sinless, but savoureth somewhat of human frailty and weakness of faith; some gravel goeth along with this pure water.

Ver. 8. O Lord! what shall I say? &c.] How shall I stop the open mouths of our reproachers? Thus he filleth his mouth with arguments; rousing up himself and wrestling with God.

Ver. 9. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?] This was Joshua’s chief care, -lest God should suffer in the glory of his power and truth. It is the ingenuity of saints, to study God’s share more than their own, and to desire far more that God may be glorified than themselves gratified; they drown all self-respects in his honour, and can believe, when things are at worst, that Christ’s cause shall prevail. There are many golden sayings of Luther sounding to this sense, in his epistles to Melancthon especially, such as a man would fetch upon his knees from Rome or Jerusalem, saith one.

Ver. 10. Get thee up: wherefore liest thou? &c., ] q.d., It is well to pray thus, but it is not all; something else is to be done. Ora et labora, pray and search, pray and fight, up and be doing, for "I will surely be with thee." {#Ex 14:14} Our Edward I, A.D. 1299, leading his army forth against the Scots, his horse, as he was putting foot in the stirrup, threw him to the earth, and striking with the hinder heels, brake two of his ribs: who nevertheless upon the same horse proceeded in person to the battle, and overthrew them at Falkirk: {a} so did Joshua, the men of Ai; being rather wakened than weakened by his late loss: and this was the fruit of prayer.

{a} Speed, p. 656.

Ver. 11. Israel hath sinned.] See #Jos 7:1.

For they have even taken of the accursed thing, &c.] God aggravateth Achan’s sin by the several circumstances, laying open how many transgressions were wrapped up in that sin of his, as #Le 16:21. This Achan himself should have done, and so prevented the Lord; {#1Co 11:31} which because he did not, God did it for him: as because the scholar will not parse his lesson, scan his verses, the master will do it for him to his cost.

Ver. 12. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand.] Sin is that great discord maker, hell-hag, cut-throat, troubler, mother of all mischief: and that was a very good answer of an English captain at the loss of Calais, when a proud Frenchman tauntingly asked, When will ye fetch Calais again? the reply was, Quando peccata vestra erunt nostris graviora, When your sins shall weigh down ours.

Neither will I be with you any more.] That God which, for ten righteous men, would have spared the five wicked cities, would not be content to drown that one sin of Achan among the righteous.

Ver. 13. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify, &c.] Come before God with the best preparations you can make. That "God that is holy is to be sanctified in righteousness." {#Isa 5:16} And he will be "sanctified of all them that draw nigh unto him" {#Le 10:3}

Ver. 14. The tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to their families.] Christ, at last day, will do, saith a divine, as Joshua here did: there were many brought together, and all to find out one. So shall all then appear: out of them a small number deducted that have heard of Christ; out of them, those that have professed him; and out of them, those that have professed in sincerity; a small few.

Ver. 15. Shall be burnt with fire.] After that he is first stoned with stones as a presumptuous offender, {#Nu 15:30,35} who is a kind of blasphemer, {#Eze 20:37} and his sin such, as is not to be expiated by sacrifice.

He and all that he hath.] His children also, as part of his goods, and infected with the contagion of his sin. Besides, they owed a death to God, who might require that debt when and how he would; neither could there be any iniquity with the Lord, since his holy will is not only recta sed regula, right, but the rule of right: neither is it for silly men to reprehend what they cannot comprehend.

And because he hath wrought folly.] Or, Wickedness, which is folly in the abstract: like as righteousness is right-wiseness, and a righteous man a right-wise-man, as in our old English books we find it printed.

In Israel.] Quorum ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia igitur supplicia: men’s offences are increased by their obligations.

Ver. 16. So Joshua rose up early.] See chap. vi. 12. Long lying in bed is reckoned among the works of the flesh, and forbidden as such. {#Ro 13:13} {See Trapp on "Ro 13:13"}

Ver. 17. And Zabdi was taken.] Yet all this while Achan repenteth not, confesseth not his fault. The devil had gagged him, and his heart was hardened by the deceitfulness of that cursed sin of covetousness, the property whereof is first to turn men’s hearts into earth and mud, and afterwards to freeze and congeal them into steel and adamant.

Ver. 18. And Achan, the son of Carmi.] Secret sinners are loath to be discovered, but their sin shall find them out, and iniquity, if unrepented of, be their ruin. "He that hideth his sins shall not prosper," {#Pr 28:13} because he putteth God to his proofs, as Achan, and as those in Jeremiah did. {#Jer 2:35}

Ver. 19. My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord.] See for explication of this expression, #1Sa 6:5 Jer 13:16 Joh 9:24. It seemeth to have been a solemn kind of form among that people, whereby a man was urged to confess his sin before the Lord, who knoweth all thy business; wherefore reverence his majesty, and give him the glory of his omniscience; choose rather to tell all openly, than to lie before him, or to keep a senseless silence, as Judas did. {#Joh 13:21 Mt 26:24}

And make confession unto him.] That thou mayest have mercy. {#Pr 28:13 1Jo 1:9} In men’s courts the best plea, saith Quintilian, is Non feci, Not guilty: but here, Ego feci, miserere. This, good Joshua knew, and was therefore thus earnest with Achan to confess his sin, though he knew it, and was resolved he should die for it.

Ver. 20. Indeed I have sinned.] Now at length he confesseth. Nunquam sero si serio. Satan knoweth that there is no way to purge the sin sick soul but upwards. He therefore holdeth the lips close as long as he can, that the heart may not disburden itself.

Ver. 21. When I saw, &c.] Millions have died of the wound in the eye. Covetousness is called "the lust of the eye," {#1Jo 2:16} and by this window much wickedness windeth itself into the heart, said the wise heathen.

Ver. 22. And they ran unto the tent.] It was a matter of haste, that justice might be speedily executed, and God’s favour re-obtained.

Ver. 23. And they took them out of the midst of the tent.] Sin not therefore in hope of secrecy: or if you have, take up the matter in God’s privy chamber of mercy by true repentance, that so his open judicial proceeding in court may be stopped. See #1Co 11:31.

Ver. 24. Took Achan the son of Zerah.] Sed non nisi coactus, as that emperor said when he signed a writ of execution.

“ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.”

And his sons and daughters.] {See Trapp on "Jos 7:15"}

Ver. 25. Why hast thou troubled us?] There was a young man among the Suitzers that went about to trouble and alter their free state. Him they condemned to death, and appointed his father for executioner, because he bred him no better. {a}

{a} Bishop Ridley told Stephen Gardiner that it was the hand of God that he was now in prison, because he had so troubled others in his time.—Act. and Mon.

Ver. 26. And they raised over him.] For a warning to others. Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio. It is a just presage and desert of ruin, not to be warned.

The valley of Achor.] See #Ho 2:15. {See Trapp on "Ho 2:15"}

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed.] For I have found an atonement, as #Job 33:24. And as a bone once broken is stronger after setting: as lovers are never greater friends than after a falling out: so is it betwixt God and his offending servants.

Take all the people.] That all may partake of the spoil.

See, I have given it into thine hand.] Thine it is assuredly; but by my free gift, not by thine own prowess or policy.

Ver. 2. Lay thee an ambush behind it.] Dolus an virtus, quis in hoste requirat? If the war be just, the use of stratagems is unquestionably warrantable. Of Decebalus, king of Dacians, in Domitian’s time, a valiant and wise warrior, it is thus storied, Noverat optime insidias faeere, proelium committere, optime uti victoria, et acceptam cladem ferre moderate; He well knew how to lay an ambush, pitch a field, use a victory, take a defeat. {a}

{a} Dio, in Dom.

Ver. 3. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand.] Whom he commanded to lay some in ambush, to wit the five thousand mentioned in #Jos 8:12.

Ver. 4. Ye shall lie in wait.] See #Jos 8:2.

Ver. 5. We will flee before them.] God also hath his stratagems; he seemeth sometimes to retire, that he may come upon his enemies with the greater advantage. The end of all the present troubles will be the ruin of the Antichristian faction, and we shall see the Church in her more perfect beauty, when the enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them, the lowest, that is the footstool of Christ.

Ver. 6. Till we have drawn them from the city.] Heb., Pulled them. Saith Bristow in his "Motives," Pull the heretics but out of their stronghold of Scripture proofs, into the open field of fathers and councils, and then you may deal well enough with them.

Ver. 7. For the Lord your God will deliver it, &c.] Thus, "through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." {#Heb 11:33,34}

Ver. 8. Ye shall set the city on fire.] Of this fire we may say, as Herodotus doth of Troy, set on fire by the Greeks, that the cinders and ashes thereof were set before the eyes of men, as an example of that sure rule. Great sins have great punishments from God; {a} like whereunto is that of Job, "Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?" {#Job 31:3}

{a} Των μεγαλων αδικηματων μεγαλαι εισι και αι πιμωριαι παρα του Θεου.—Herod.

Ver. 9. Joshua therefore sent them forth, &c.] Thus he fulfilled all parts and points of a good general: being, as Velleius saith of Mithridates, king of Pontus, Virtute eximius, plerunque fortuna, semper animo maximus, consiliis dux, miles manu, &c., and as Catullus of Achilles,

“ Hostibus haud tergo, sed forti pectore notus.”

Ver. 10. And Joshua rose up early in the morning.] He is much noted for his early rising: his vigilancy being equal to his valour.

Ver. 11. And all the people, even the people of war.] Not two or three thousand only, as when they first went against Ai, and were discomfited, but all the chief of the soldiery; lest some man should say to him, as once Archidamus did to his son, rashly conflicting with the Athenians, but wanting strength to make his party good with them, Aut viribus adde, aut animis adime: Either add to your forces, or abate of your valour.

Ver. 12. Between Bethel and Ai.] Those two confederate cities, in woods and coverts, probably in the wilderness of Bethaven. {#Jos 18:12,13}

Ver. 13. Joshua went that night.] That is, very early in the morning, {#Jos 8:9,10} with a small company, that he might provoke the citizens to sally out, which they did the rather, because they saw the Israelites in the midst of the valley, iniquo loco, in a place of disadvantage.

Ver. 14. They hasted and rose up early.] Sine dilatione aut deliberatione, consiliove capto, they made more haste than good speed. Warriors should do nothing rashly, Quia in proelio non datur his errare, as Lamachus said, one error is destructive. "Every purpose shall be established by counsel: therefore with good advice make war." {#Pr 20:18} {See Trapp on "Pr 20:18"}

But he wist not.] And therefore all too late came in with his fool’s Had I known. Leo cassibus irretitus ait, Si praescivissem.

Ver. 15. Made as if they were beaten.] See #Jos 8:2. So Solomon made as if he would divide the living child. Our Saviour "made as if he would have gone farther." {#Lu 24:28 Ge 19:2 1Ki 3:24}

Ver. 16. And were drawn away from the city.] In hope of like success as before; but it proved otherwise. So wicked men praesumendo sperant, et sperando pereunt, presume and perish.

Ver. 17. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel.] Thus obdurate sinners are even ambitious of destruction. Judgments need not go to find them out; they run to meet their bane.

And they left the city open.] Security ushereth in destruction. God’s saints are oft outwitted by the devil, whilst by a wile he getteth them out of the city, -the promise and God’s gracious presence, -and then doth what he will with them. "Little children," saith St John, "if ye abide in God’s commandments" (and so keep home), "ye abide in God," and so are in safety. {#1Jo 2:28}

Ver. 18. Stretch out the spear.] Hastam vexillarem, the spear whereon hung the colours, for a sign to the soldiers, those of the ambush to enter, and those of the army to turn head against the enemy. By this means, saith one, as by Moses’s rod, it pleased God to work for his people.

Ver. 19. And the ambush arose quickly, and they ran, and hasted.] For they knew that opportunities are headlong, and once past they cannot be recovered. Armies as well as courts have their cito, cito Alexander being asked how in so short a time he had overrun so great a part of the habitable world, answered, Μηδεν αναβαλλομενος, by making no delays.

Ver. 20. And when the men of Ai looked behind them.] They should have looked before προσσω και οπισσω. But now it was Sero inquit Nero. Sin casteth wicked men into straits inextricable, and filleth their souls with sorrows unmedicinable.

Ver. 21. And slew the men of Ai.] Who were half dead before with fear and astonishment. {#Jos 8:20}

“ Hic rogo; non furor eat ne moriare, mori?”

Ver. 22. So they were in the midst of Israel.] See #Jos 8:20.

Ver. 23. And the king of Ai they took alive.] His preservation was but a reservation to a more solemn execution: so {#Re 19:20} the beast and false prophet were cast alive into the fiery lake, when the remnant were slain with the sword. Potentes potenter torquebuntur.

Ver. 24. Returned unto Ai, and smote it.] Diruendi sunt corvorum nidi, crows’ nests are to be destroyed, lest they nest and lay there again the next year. If this city had been suffered to stand, the Canaanites might have fortified it again against them, while they were led farther to mount Ebal, and mount Gerizim.

Ver. 25. Were twelve thousand.] A poor few to stand out against such an army; but self-confidence undid them.

Ver. 26. For Joshua drew not his hand back.] "The arms of his hands being made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob," {#Ge 49:24} of whom it is said that "his hand is stretched out still." {#Isa 9:12}

Ver. 27. Only the cattle and the spoil.] For encouragement of the soldiers: so at the sack of Constantinople, Mohammed, the great Turk, caused proclamation to be made through his camp that he would freely give all the spoil of the city for three days unto his soldiers, if they could win it, which also they soon did, and were so enriched therewith, that it is a proverb amongst them at this day, if any grow suddenly rich, to say, He hath been at the sacking of Constantinople. {a}

{a} Turk. Hist., 347.

Ver. 28. And Joshua burnt Ai.] {See Trapp on "Jos 8:8"}

Ver. 29. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree, ] i.e., Either on a gallows, or cross. The Septuagint has it, upon a double tree, {a} intimating the cross, propter dua ligna quae se invicem intersecant, because of the two pieces standing across, as the threads in the woof and warp; whence the Jews at this day, in derision of Christ crucified, call him the woof and warp, {b} because these two make the figure of the cross.

That they should take his carcass down from the tree.] Ab arbore infelici, as the Latins call it. This was according to the law; {#De 21:23} but it was otherwise in the case of Saul and his sons. {#2Sa 21:9,10} God may dispense with his own law as he pleaseth.

{a} επι ξυλου διδυμον.

{b} יחשׁ בלענ Stamen et subtegmen.

Ver. 30. Then Joshua built an altar.] According to Moses’s charge. {#De 11:29 27:5,6}

to mount Ebal.] Which was far up in the country, near Shechem, in the tribe of Ephraim. {#Jud 9:6,7 20:7} The Canaanites were now so quaffed and dismayed with the destruction of Jericho and Ai, that for the present they opposed not the Israelites in their way to these two mountains, and their service there performed.

Ver. 31. Over which no man hath llft up any iron.] To polish or garnish it; for this was to defile it. {#Ex 20:25 De 27:5} In God’s service we must neither be curious nor careless. Holy things must be handled Sancte magis quam scite, neither is it for men to worship God as they please.

Ver. 32. A copy of the law of Moses, ] i.e., The decalogue or ten commandments, and therewith, likely, the blessings and curses here pronounced on these two mountains: to the end that all the people might read them, and be well versed in them. But what a sot was that Popish doctor, who, being asked whether he had read the decalogue, denied that he had ever had any such book in his study. {a}

{a} Amama, in Antibarb. Biblico.

Ver. 33. Before the priests and the Levites.] Whose office from God was to pronounce not only blessings, {#Nu 6:23} but curses, that those that would not obey God for love should do it for fear. These curses we may read in #De 27:15-17, &c. The blessings are not mentioned by Moses, that we might learn to look for them by Messiah only. {#Ac 3:26}

Ver. 34. And afterwards he read all the words, ] i.e., He caused them to be read by the Levites, {#De 27:14} and haply the sense to be given, as #Ne 8:8.

Ver. 35. And the strangers.] The proselyted strangers that professed the true religion.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. The Hittite and the Amorite.] Some say the Girgashites are not here named, because that, of all the seven nations, they accepted of conditions; of peace; the rest, save only the Gibeonites, who were of the Hivites, {#Jos 9:7} stood it out to their utter destruction. If men harden their hearts, God will harden his hand, and hasten their ruin.

Ver. 2. That they gathered themselves together, &c.] Herein they showed themselves far wiser than our forefathers, of whom Tacitus testifieth upon his own experience, for he had been in Brittany with his father-in-law Agricola, that nothing more disadvantaged them against the Romans, who conquered them, than dissension, that mother of dissolution. Seldom did two or three cities convene or combine: Ita dum singuli pugnant, universi vincuntur, and so when they cannot agree to fight together, they are undone together.

Ver. 3. And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard, &c.] The rest of the Canaanites had heard as much, but made not so good a use of it. Some hear and fear; others hear and are hardened. Some of St Paul’s hearers at Athens derided, others doubted, a few only believed. {#Ac 17:32,34} Grace maketh the difference.

Ver. 4. They did work wilily.] They exercised a serpentine subtilty, and dealt fraudulently, as #Ge 3:1; but where was their columbine simplicity? {#Mt 10:16} They strain hard to save their lives. But a man should rather die than lie.

Ver. 5. And old shoes and clouted.] Papists, boasting so much of antiquity, are by one not unfitly compared to these Gibeonites with their old shoes and mouldy bread. Antiquity disjoined from verity is but filthy hoariness, and deserveth no more reverence than an old fornicator, who is so much the more odious because old. It is here at best, as in books, some of which are odorandae rubiginis, of greater antiquity than authority. Those were old things spoken of in #1Ch 4:22, but no whit the better for that.

Ver. 6. We be come from a far country.] And therefore you may safely make a league with us. {#De 20:11} Here was fair tale, but not a word of truth, Nusquam tuta fides.

“ Sit licit in partes circumspectissimus omnes,

Nemo tamen vulpes nemo cavere potest.”

Ver. 7. Peradventure ye dwell among us.] Certe qui caret ne decipiatur, vi cavet dum etiam caret.

Ver. 8. We are thy servants.] We come not to capitulate with thee, but to receive conditions from thee; and to be wholly at thine appointment. A servant is υπηρετης και οργανον, saith Aristotle, the master’s underling and instrument.

Ver. 9. From a very far country, &c.] Thus mendacium mendacio assunt, they lay lie upon lie, as those in #Ps 119:69. They had taught their tongues to speak lies, and were artists at it. {#Jer 9:5} They had taken fast hold of deceit. {#Jer 8:5}

Ver. 10. And all that he did to the two kings.] Not of Jericho and Ai, but of Heshbon and Pashan, things long since done, and far and near talked of.

Ver. 11. And go to meet them, and say.] Seeing we are not able to match them, it is good policy to meet them with entreaties of peace. Let us do the like by Almighty God. {#Am 4:12} Mittamus preces et lachrymas cordis legatos, saith Cyprian; Currat paenitentia ne praecurrat sententia, saith Chrysologus.

Ver. 12. This is our bread, &c.] See #Jos 9:5,6,9.

Ver. 13. See Jos 9:5,6,9.

Ver. 14. And the men took of their victuals.] That is, they did eat of it in token of a league made with them, say some: others more probably, they took it and looked on it, to see whether it were hoary and mouldy, as they had said.

And asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.] This precipitancy and credulity is seldom successful. Good Josiah lost his life by it. Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts.

Ver. 15. And Joshua made peace with them.] This was not without the Lord; who, as he glorified his justice in rooting out the rest of the Amorites, so he manifested his mercy in saving these Gibeonites from that general deluge of destruction.

Ver. 16. At the end of three days.] Truth is the daughter of time: falsehood will out at length. Some is so thin, that it may be presently seen through: and some again so closely and covertly carried, that it appeareth not till after a time.

Ver. 17. And Kirjathjearim.] Or, The city of woods; famous afterwards for the birth of the prophet Uriah there, who prophesied against Jerusalem, and suffered for speaking truth. {#Jer 26:20-22} Veritas odium parit.

Ver. 18. Smote them not.] But yet bore them on their backs, as we say, and murmured against the princes who were gulled by the Gibeonites, and the people by that means beguiled of the spoil of those great cities.

Because the princes…had sworn unto them.] ορκος quasi ερκος; an oath is a hedge which must not be lept over for the avoiding of a piece of fouler way. If the Gibeonites had been slain after an oath given for their security, the banks of blasphemy would have been broken down in those heathens that had heard of it.

Ver. 19, Now therefore we may not touch them.] Unless we will run upon the pikes of God’s displeasure, as Saul did four hundred years after this. {#2Sa 21:1,2}

Ver. 20. Lest wrath be upon us.] In the twelve tables at Rome it was written, Periurii, poena divina, exitium; humans, dedecus." God punisheth perjury with destruction, men with disgrace. Tissaphernes the Persian being overcome by Agesilaus, desired a truce, and had it, both parties swearing to observe it. This Agesilaus did with great care, but not Tissaphernes. Agesilaus comforted himself and his army with this, that the Persian by his perjury would both provoke God and offend men, and should fare accordingly. {a}

{a} Nepos, in Vita Agesil.

Ver. 21. But let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water.] Lignatores et lixae: so they are freed from a natural death, because of the princes’ oath, but condemned to a civil death (slavery) by the princes’ sentence.

Unto all the congregation.] That they, in the meantime, as a royal nation might be privileged and exempted from such servile drudgery. A great mercy to the one, and, as it proved, no less to the other. See #Ezr 2:43, {See Trapp on "Ezr 2:43"} These Gibeonites were afterwards called Nethinims, that is, Dedititii, or rather Deodati, men given to God, and to the public service of the sanctuary and people.

Ver. 22. Wherefore have ye beguiled us?] {See Trapp on "Jos 9:6"} {See Trapp on "Jos 9:7"} But was Joshua so light of belief? knew he not that Multis annis iam transactis? &c.

Ver. 23. Now therefore ye are cursed, ] viz., With Cannaan’s curse, "A servant of servants," &c., which yet afterwards God turned to a blessing. See on #Ezr 2:43 Ge 9:25, and observe that it was literally fulfilled in these Canaanites.

Ver. 24. Therefore we were sore afraid of our lives.] Man is ζωον φιλοζωον, a life-loving creature. Skin for skin and all that he hath will he give for his life. But yet he purchaseth his life at too dear a rate who payeth his honesty to save it. He that thus saveth his life shall lose it. Life in God’s displeasure is worse than death, said that martyr.

Ver. 25. And now, behold, we are in thine hand.] These ambassadors were masters of speech, which they here order very prudently and politically to effect that they came for. An orator, saith Quintilian—so, an ambassador—should be Vir bonus, dicendi peritus, a good man, well able to express himself.

Ver. 26. And delivered them out of the hands of the children of Israel.] Whose fingers even itched, as they say, after the pillage of those great cities: but Joshua staved them off.

Ver. 27. For the congregation.] To do those works belonging to God’s service, which otherwise the people should have done. Ut lignatores essent et lixae.

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. When Adonizedec king of Jerusalem.] A glorious name, fitter for Messiah the Prince, —- for it signifieth the same in effect with Melchizedek, "which is by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King of peace," -than {#Heb 7:2} for such a tyrant. {#Jud 1:7} But it is nothing new for that kind of men to affect glorious titles, as did Antiochus Soter, Ptolomeus Euergetes, &c. The great Turk styleth himself at this day, Awlem Penawh, that is, the world’s refuge. {a}

Had heard that Joshua had taken Ai, &c.] And that now their turn was not far off—-

“ Iam tun res agitur, paries cure proximus ardet.”

This they hardly, and not till needs must, take notice of: sin and Satan having cast them into a dead lethargy, out of which they are hardly roused.

And were among them.] Having embraced their religion, and glad to do them service. This caused the devil and his imps to set up their bristles, and to seek their destruction.

{a} Grand Sign. Serag., 148.

Ver. 2. That they feared greatly.] And great cause they had, considering what supply and shelter the Israelites might have from thence, and how other cities might revolt by their example.

Ver. 3. Sent unto Hoham king of Hebron.] "Sic squamae Satan ita cohaerent ut earum opere textili densato quasi loricatus incedat Satan et cataphractus: quod de Faedere Concordiae qua malignantes ecclesiae membra se complexa muniebant et circumvallabant,"—elegantissime Lutherus, et vere. Persecutors conspire and complot against God’s people, who may boldly say unto them, as #Isa 8:9,10, "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces: take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; for God is with us:…the enemy is come into the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel." These words Basil bade the persecuted Christians use to the heathen princes, Animo praesenti et intrepido, with an undaunted spirit and well-knit resolution.

Ver. 4. That we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua.] This was the quarrel: and to be revenged upon the Gibeonites, these kings would not care to weaken themselves by wasting their forces upon them: as the bee, for like cause, loseth her sting and becometh a drone, if not her life.

Ver. 5. And encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.] Opposition is evangelii genius, saith Calvin: and the Church is haeres crucis, the heir of the Cross, saith Luther. "All that will live godly shall suffer persecution." {#2Ti 3:12} But Christ, the true Joshua, will rescue and deliver them that call to him for help as these did.

Ver. 6. Come up to us quickly.] Haste, haste, haste, cito, citius, citissime. a little delay may be the loss of all. Charles, king of Sicily, was called Cunctator, for his lingering to his loss.

Ver. 7. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal.] Having first consulted with God, and received encouragement from him, as #Jos 10:8.

Ver. 8. Fear them not, &c.] Joshua, though valiant, had his fears and frailties. Of Charles V, emperor, it is storied, that while he was putting on his armour to go into the battle, his countenance was pale and perplexed: but when the battle was once begun, he was bold as a lion, and did great exploits.

Ver. 9. And went up from Gilgal all night.] He marched all night, and fought all day for these Gibeonites; of whose faithfulness he might well have doubted. They took not so much pains in coming to deceive him as he in going to deliver them. It is the noblest victory to "overcome evil with good."

Ver. 10. And the Lord discomfited them.] It is he that giveth victory, as the Romans also acknowledged by presenting a palm, in that case, to their Jupiter, so other nations,

Ver. 11. The Lord cast down great stones from heaven.] Huge hailstones that brained the Canaanites, but hurt not the Israelites, that were at the heels of them. See the like in mystery, {#Re 16:21} and perhaps it shall be fulfilled upon the antichristian rabble according to the letter.

Ver. 12. Then spake Joshua to the Lord.] He first prayed, and then laid his commands on sun and moon to stand still, and not stir, till he had achieved a full victory, Hereupon one crieth out, O admirabilem piarum precum vim ac potentiam quibus etiam caelestia cedunt! O fidem heroicam, cuius virtutem ipsa astra sentiunt! quos non hostes terreret, feriret, fugaret illa manus quae victoriae suae trophaea etiam in ipsis caeli orbibus figit? O the power of prayer! O the force of faith! How could that hand do less than confound his enemies, which had set trophies of victory in the very celestial orbs?

Ver. 13. And the sun stood still.] Heb., Was silent. The whole body of the movable heaven stopped its course, and made a halt. Neither need it offend us that there is no record of this miracle in heathen histories; for Diodorus Siculus confesseth, that all heathen antiquities before the Theban and Trojan wars are either fabulous narrations, or little better.

Is not this written in the book of Jasher?] Which Jerome {a} will have to be Genesis: but it seemeth rather to have been some civil history or continued chronicle, such as are amongst us the Chronicles of England, which is now lost, as are also some other books, {#1Ch 29:29 2Ch 12:15 9:29} and was therefore, we may be sure, no part of the holy canon: God, by his providence, taking care and course that no one hair of that sacred head should fall to the ground. This book of Jasher, or the upright, together with Solomon’s Physics, {#1Ki 4:32,33} the book of his Acts, {#1Ki 11:41} the books of Nathan and Gad, {#1Ch 29:29} of Shemaiah, {#2Ch 12:15} of Jehu, {#2Ch 20:34} the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah, &c., were not testamentary or canonical: and are now taken away, not because they contained matter either above human capacity, or else corrupt and unsound, as Origen {b} determineth: but rather, as Augustine {c} hath it, we are to know, that although they were both pious and profitable, yet were they written out of a historical diligence for more plentiful knowledge; not by divine inspiration, for the authority of religion.

{a} In Ezek. xviii.

{b} Prolog. in Cant., ad finem.

{c} De Civ. Dei, lib. xviii, cap. 38.

Ver. 14. And there was no day llke that.] No, not Hezekiah’s long day, when the sun went backward ten degrees in the dial of Ahaz. Our forefathers had a long Sunday, as they called it, when King Edgar ordained that the Sabbath should be solemnised from Saturday nine of the clock till Monday morning. {a} The Jews likewise, in sanctifying the Sabbath, used to add, de profano ad sacrum, &c.

That the Lord hearkened to the voice of a man.] So he did when at the cry of blind Bartimaeus, Jesus stood still, {#Mr 10:49} that Sun of righteousness. {#Mal 4:2}

{a} Act. and Mon.

Ver. 15. And Joshua returned, ] viz., After he had finished all that is related in this whole chapter, as in #Jos 10:43. Some render it, Itaque reditum adornabat Ioshua.

Ver. 16. But these five kings fled, and hid themselves.] But their covering was too short; divine vengeance discovered them, and brought out to condign punishment. Nemo scelus gerit in pictore, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. See #Am 9:2 Ps 139:8-10. {See Trapp on "Am 9:2"} {See Trapp on "Ps 139:8"} {See Trapp on "Ps 139:9"} {See Trapp on "Ps 139:10"}

Ver. 17. In a cave at Makkedah.] In the confines and country adjacent, and belonging to this city.

Ver. 18. Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave.] Where now, as in a trap, the mice might well gnaw, but get out they could not.

Ver. 19. Smote the hindmost of them.] Heb., Caudate eos, cut off the tail, fall upon the rear.

Ver. 20. Entered into their fenced cities.] Which yet could not long secure them: their preservation was but a reservation.

Ver. 21. None moved his tongue, &c.] No dead dog durst once bark at them: their condition was very quiet, without any disturbance of man or beast. See #Ex 11:7 Job 5:23. "Iniquity shall" one day "stop her mouth." {#Job 5:16}

Ver. 22. bring out those five kings.] So shall Christ one day say of all, whether kings or prisoners, lords or rag-a-muffins, that will not have him to reign over them. Those that will not now obey that sweet voice, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden," shall then have no other voice to obey but "Go, ye cursed," &c.

Ver. 23. {See Trapp on "Jos 10:22"}

Ver. 24. Put your feet upon the necks of these kings.] Not as proudly insulting over them, as that pope did over the emperor at Venice; but to show that he had quite subdued them, as Christ also hath all our spiritual enemies, {#Ro 8:37} and will tread Satan himself under our feet shortly. {#Ro 16:20} What, then, though that old serpent shoot his sting into our heel, and make us halt, as that martyr said? yet let us go on, though halting, to heaven, whence the devil is cast down. {#Re 12:9}

Ver. 25. Fear not, nor be dismayed, &c.] To the like sense saith the Captain of our salvation to his spiritual soldiers, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." {#1Co 16:13}

For thus shall the Lord do, ] sc., If you do not the work of the Lord deceitfully or slothfully. {#Jer 48:10}

Ver. 26. Hanged them on five trees.] See #Jos 8:26.

Ver. 27. They took them down.] See #Jos 8:29.

Ver. 28. And the king thereof he utterly destroyed.] Because his sins had done much harm: (1.) By imitation, for Magnates magnetes; ( 2.) By imputation, for plectunter Achivi.

Ver. 29. Then Joshua passed, &c.] Like a wise general he pursueth his victories; which if Hannibal had done after the battle at Cannae, he might have taken Rome, which afterwards he would have done but could not. Hence one said of him, Vincere scis Hannibal, victoria uti nescis: Hannibal knew how to get a victory, but not how to use it.

Ver. 30. But did unto the king thereof.] See #Jos 10:28.

Ver. 31. And Joshua passed.] See #Jos 10:29.

Ver. 32. On the second day, ] viz., After he had besieged it. For Joshua took towns faster than did Timotheus the Athenian, into whose toils they were said to come while he slept, till such time as he began to sacrifice to his own net; for then he lost them again as fast. {a}

{a} Plut., in Syll.

Ver. 33. Then Horam king of Gezer.] Whereof read #1Ch 14:16. It lay near to Lachish, and sped the worse for its neighbourhood: as did Hamath for Damascus. {#Zec 9:2}

Ver. 34, On that day.] Venit, vidit, vicit. See #Jos 10:28,29.

Ver. 35. {See Trapp on "Jos 10:34"}

Ver. 36. Unto Hebron.] See more of this victory in #Jos 14:13-15 15:13

Ver. 37. And the king thereof.] The new king for the old king was hanged among those five that came up against Gibeon. {#Jos 10:5,23,26} He might have as short a reign as had Marius in Rome, whom one day saw an emperor, the next day he ruled, and the third day he was slain by a soldier, with the same sword which himself had made when he was a cutler.

Ver. 38. To Debir.] Formerly called Kirjathsepher. {#Jud 1:12}

Ver. 39. All the souls, ] i.e., All the people: the cattle they had for a prey.

Ver. 40. As the Lord God of Israel commanded.] It was not therefore cruelty, but obedience, to slay so many thousands. There is a pious cruelty, saith one. And Magna quidem est in ilia severitate pietas per quam tollitur peccandi libertas, saith another: {a} there is great piety in that severity which taketh away licentious liberty.

{a} Gregory.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. When Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things.] In policy he should have done this sooner, before the five southern kings had been destroyed. But Jabin was an Epimetheus, a postmaster, wise after the fact; and sped accordingly. God’s holy hand was in it also, that his people might not be over matched or disheartened. Our temptations are in like sort disposed of by Christ, the great Αγωνοθετης.

Ver. 2. South of Cinneroth.] Afterwards called the lake of Gennesareth, {#Lu 5:1} and the Sea of Galilee or Tiberias. {#Joh 6:1}

Ver. 3. In the land of Mizpeh.] Not that Mizpeh of Judah, {#Jos 15:38} nor that of Benjamin, {#Jos 18:26} nor Mizpeh of Moab; {#1Sa 22:3} but that of Gilead, mentioned in #Ge 31:49 Jud 10:3.

Ver. 4. They and all their hosts.] These were, as one said of Carthage, half destroyed, Morientium ferarum ultimi nixus, et violentiores morsus, the last spruntings and bitings of these dying beasts.

And chariots very many.] Chariots armed with scythes and hooks: concerning which Vegetius saith, that at first they were a terror, and afterwards a scorn.

Ver. 5. And when all these kings were met together.] Heb., Assembled by appointment, at a set time. Ducunt volentes fata, nolentes trahunt. See #Ps 37:12,13.

Ver. 6. Be not afraid because of them.] Though many, and mighty, and malicious, and combined. Joshua had his fears and frailties; else what needed this encouragement? {a}

I will deliver them.] I am for thee; and how many reckonest thou me at? I am God Almighty; fear not therefore their horses and chariots: I will make thee master of them all.

Thou shalt hough their horses.] And thereby make them unserviceable; that ye may trust in mine aid alone.

{a} Si modo victor eras, ad crastina bella pavebas.

Ver. 7. By the waters of Merom suddenly.] Like a lightbolt. Bajazet, for like cause, was surnamed Gilderun, or lightning: and of two brave Romans Lucan saith that they were

“ duo fulmina belli.”

Ver. 8. Who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon.] The mother city of Phoenicia: yea, various fled to Africa and there settled, as is gathered by a pillar mentioned by Procopius with this inscription, We are Phoenicians flying from the face of Jesus the son of Nave; as also by the harmony of the Punic dialect with the Hebrew: witness Plautus’s gibberish in "Paenulo," and various words in Augustine.

Misrephothmaim.] Or, Hot waters, where they boiled salt, or made glass, or bathed.

Ver. 9. See #Jos 11:6.

Ver. 10. And smote the king thereof.] The new king. See #Jos 10:37.

Ver. 11. And he burnt Hazor with fire.] Which yet was rebuilt and reigned in by another Jabin, this man’s nephew haply, who therefore might, in revenge, the more cruelly tyrannise over the Israelites. {#Jud 4:2,3} Malice is commonly hereditary, and runs in the blood; and, as we used to say of runnet, the older it is, the stronger.

Ver. 12. And all the kings of them.] Herodotus saith of the Thracians, that if they had been all of one mind, or under one king, they had been invincible.

“εις κοιρανος εστω’’—Homer.

Ver. 13. That stood still in their strength.] Heb., On their heap: i.e., that prepared to have stood out a siege, but yet repented and did not; or that had not their walls and bulwarks yet rased and dismantled in the fury of war.

That did Joshua burn.] For example’s sake to the rest; and for that the king thereof was the author of that war. {#Jos 11:1}

Ver. 14. Neither left they any to breathe, ] viz., Upon that air which they had so infected while they filled the land from one end to another with their uncleanness. {#Ezr 9:11}

Ver. 15. As the Lord commanded.] This is often repeated, to free Joshua from suspicion of inhumanity and cruelty in all these bloody executions. Julius Caesar, and such like conquerors, had no such warrant for his slaughtering a million of men, after three hundred nations vanquished, and three thousand towns taken by him.

Ver. 16. So Joshua took all that land.] Here we have Joshua’s victories summed up: who quickly sheathed his sword, but never laid it off, as Seneca saith of Caesar.

Ver. 17. Even from the mount Halak.] Or, The smooth or bare mountain; not unlike that they call Axylon, by which Manlius marched against the Gallo-Grecians. {a}

{a} Non ligni modo quicquam, sed ne spinas quidem habet. -Liv., lib. 38.

Ver. 18. Joshua made war a long time.] Near seven years, though in few words related. Of him it might be said, as was once of our Alfred,

“ Si modo victor eras, ad crastina bella pavebas;

Si modo rictus eras (as at Ai) ad crastina bella parabas.”

The Romans’ war with the pirates was finished by Pompey with

incredible swiftness, and in a very short time, saith Augustine; {a}

but so was not this with the Canaanites. "Slay them not, lest my

people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them

down." {#Ps 59:11}

{a} Incredibili celeritate confectum.—Aug., De Civ. Dei.

Ver. 19. There was not a city that made peace.] Hence the war held out so long: they generally stood out to the last man. There is nothing more pertinacious than a strong lust: nothing more obstinate or inexpugnable than those Canaanites.

Ver. 20. For it was of the Lord.] Punishing them with a judiciary hardness, who were before hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and malice of Satan.

Ver. 21. And cut off all the Anakims.] Whom the spies had once represented, and reported insuperable. {#Nu 14:43-45} The lion is not so fierce as he is painted: to faith nothing is impossible.

Ver. 22. Only in Gaza, &c.] Three Philistine cities. See #2Sa 21:15-22.

Ver. 23. And the land rested.] Peace is the daughter of war; a fair and happy daughter of an ugly and direful mother, as the Romans said of Pompey the Great, εχθορον πατρος φιλτατον τεκνον.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. Now these are the kings.] Here we have the epilogue of Israel’s wars under Moses and Joshua; together with a catalogue of the countries which they conquered, and the kings whom they slew.

Ver. 2. And from half Gilead.] For the other half was held by Og. {#Jos 12:5}

Ver. 3. And unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea.] Otherwise called the Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites; the water whereof is so thick, saith Josephus, than an ox, having all his legs bound, will not sink into it; and so pestiferous, that fowls flying over it fall down dead.

Ver. 4. Which was of the remnant of giants.] Slain by the Ammonites. {#De 2:20 3:11} Raphaims, they called themselves, that is, Physicians or Preservers; but indeed they were Zamzummims, that is, boisterous and abominable. Nomen inane, crimen immane.

Ver. 5. In mount Hermon.] Which is conceived to be the utmost part of mount Gilead, joining mount Lebanon and Gilead together.

Ver. 6. Moses the servant of the Lord.] See #Jos 1:1.

Ver. 7. Which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel.] A spacious and fruitful tract of ground, a country, which if God had fashioned the world like a ring, as he did like a globe, might have been the gem of it. But what was Canaan in its flourish in comparison of heaven, and of that city of pearl, the new Jerusalem, whither the Lord Christ will certainly bring all his people in despite of their enemies! they shall surely and safely sail, through Christ’s blood, into the bosom of the Father, and unto those mountains of spices. {#So 8:14}

Ver. 8. {See Trapp on "Jos 12:7"}

Ver. 9. The king of Jericho, one.] In this one country of Judea—which was not above two hundred miles long, and sixty miles broad: not near the half of England, as good authors compute it—what abundance of kings find we, and what a huge multitude of inhabitants! So here in England of old, were so many cities, so many kings almost. When Caesar entered this island, Kent had four kings that ruled in it: viz., Cingentorix, Carvilius, Taximagulus, and Segonax. Hence Jerome calleth this island Fertilem tyrannorum, full of tyrants.

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. Thou art old and stricken in years, ] q.d., Thou hast not long to do; up therefore and be doing; work while it is yet day; the night of death cometh, when none can work. Divide what thou hast conquered, yea, that which is yet to be conquered, among the tribes; for all is theirs, unless they forget their charter. See the true Christian’s charter, which he cannot forfeit. {#1Co 3:22,23}

Ver. 2. All the borders of the Philistines.] Anciently called Caphtorims. {#De 2:23 Am 9:7} Their country lay along the coast of the midland sea; whereby the Israelites were kept from much trading with other nations, that they might not learn their manners. Hence Judea is called an "isle," though part of the continent. {#Isa 20:6} Like Benjamin, who had his mess by himself.

Ver. 3. From Sihor.] Or Nile, which hath its name Sihor from blackness, and Nile from muddiness. So much of Egypt as this river watereth, is a black mould, so fruitful, as they do but throw in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months, as travellers tell us.

Also the Avites.] Who, belike, still held part of their old possession. {#De 2:22,23}

Ver. 4. All the land of the Canaanites.] Who yet held out against the Israelites, but hindered them not from dividing the land. No more shall those remnants of corruption hinder the saints from possession of their mansions prepared for them by Christ. {#Joh 14:2}

Ver. 5. And the land of the Giblites.] Called Gebal in #Ps 83:7 Eze 27:9. Enemies to the Church.

Ver. 6. Them will I drive out, &c., ] viz., If the Israelites rule with me and be faithful with my saints, as #Ho 11:12; else "they shall know my breach of promise," as #Nu 14:34.

Ver. 7. Now therefore divide this land.] Even those parts thereof also that are yet unsubdued; for it is theirs, but so as they must win it before they wear it. Sic petitur caelum. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.

Ver. 8. Even as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.] So do thou confirm it. Here then is no tautology, as at first it may seem to be.

Ver. 9. From Aroer, that is upon the bank.] Besides which, it may seem there was another Aroer, in the midst of the river, {#Isa 17:2} as Venice in the midst of the sea, and taking for her motto,

“ Media insuperabilis unda.”

Ver. 10. And all the cities of Sihon.] See #Jos 12:2.

Ver. 11. And the border of the Geshurites.] Due to Israel, but yet detained from them. {#Jos 13:13}

Ver. 12. Which reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei.] Which some take for two mansion houses of his, or royal palaces.

Ver. 13. Dwell among the Israelites.] Through their sloth and cowardliness, which is here taxed.

Ver. 14. Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance.] Because God was to be their portion: Θεος η προσοδος, as Lucian speaketh of his heathenish priests.

Ver. 15. According to their families, ] i.e., Proportionably according to the number of their families.

Ver. 16. And the city that is in the midst.] See #Jos 13:9.

Ver. 17. Bamothbaal and Bethbaalmeon.] Places of much idolatry, that land desolating sin: such as are now Sichem and Loretto; where, whensoever the Ave Maria bell rings, which is at sunrising, noon, and sun setting, all men, in what place soever, house, field, street, or market, do presently kneel down and say an Ave Maria, &c.

Ver. 18. The cities and coasts of each tribe are thus particularly set down, to prevent discord and division, that mother of dissolution.

Ver. 21. Dukes of Sihon.] His vassals; and after his death they made themselves kings, but were shortly after slain by the sword of Israel. {#Nu 31:8}

Ver. 22. Balaam also the son of Beor.] The spellman of Satan: though by his words he might seem a friend to Israel, yet was he worthily cut off by them for his wicked counsel. So shall all such perish as "turn aside, like Balaam, unto their crooked ways: but peace shall be upon Israel." {#Ps 125:5} See #Jude 1:11.

Ver. 23. {See Trapp on "Jos 13:18"}

Ver. 24. {See Trapp on "Jos 13:18"}

Ver. 25. Half the land of the children of Ammon.] Which Sihon had taken from them. See #Jud 11:15 Nu 21:6.

Ver. 26. Ramathmizpeth.] Called also Ramoth in Gilead. {#Jos 20:8}

Ver. 27. {See Trapp on "Jos 13:18"}

Ver. 28. {See Trapp on "Jos 13:18"}

Ver. 29. Unto the half tribe of Manasseh.] Who had formerly won it with their swords. {#Nu 32:39}

Ver. 30. See #Nu 32:41.

Ver. 31. Mackir the son of Manasseh.] Whose children had taken Gilead: and therefore had the like right to it as Jacob had to that portion of ground which he gave to their great-grandfather Joseph.

Ver. 32. In the plains of Moab.] But lately possessed by the Amorites, and won from them by Israel.

Ver. 33. The Lord…was their inheritance.] See #Jos 13:14.

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. And these are the countries.] These that are expressed in this and the five following chapters.

Which Eleazar the priest.] Who was a type of Christ, by whom we have entrance into the heavenly Canaan, and the fourth from Levi; and so that prophecy was fulfilled, #Ge 15:16.

Ver. 2. By lot was their inheritance.] To prevent all murmurings and discontents, since it was the Lord that cut them out their several conditions; who, as he is Lord of all, and may do with his own as he pleaseth, so he is the only wise God, who doth all things well—

“ Pondere, mensura, numero facit omnia.”

See #Pr 16:33 18:18. {See Trapp on "Pr 16:33"} {See Trapp on "Pr 18:18"}

Ver. 3. But unto the Levites.] See #Jos 13:14.

Ver. 4. For the children of Joseph were two tribes.] And so both Joseph had a double portion, the privilege of the firstborn which Reuben had forefeited, {#1Ch 5:1} and the number of twelve tribes was made up, notwithstanding the Levites were not reckoned. The Papists, to make up the number of ten commandments, when they have cashiered the second, as making utterly against their image worship, divide the last into two; so loath are heretics to have their asses’ ears seen. But Paul, who knew better than any of them the analysis of the law, calleth that last "the commandment," not commandments. {#Ro 7:7}

Ver. 5. As the Lord commanded Moses.] To see that the Levites had their lands as well as other incomes, {#Nu 35:2} and that no man else should challenge any propriety in them. {#Le 25:32-34}

Ver. 6. Then the children of Judah, ] i.e., The chief of them came, as advocates for Caleb, who was a man of great eminency in their tribe.

And Caleb the son of Jephunneh.] To distinguish him from Caleb the son of Hezron. {#1Ch 2:18}

Thou knowest the thing.] What prerogative the Lord promised us for a reward of our constancy. God is a liberal paymaster, and sendeth no man away with cause to complain of a hard bargain.

Ver. 7. As it was in my heart.] Sincerely, and without dissimulation; he was all heart, or, as heart, so his name Caleb signifieth, Egregie cordatus homo. One of the disciples was called Lebbaemus, or hearty; and Hooper the martyr was called for like cause Hearty Hooper. His nephew Nabal was none such, but churlish and evil in his doings: yet he was of the house of Caleb, {#1Sa 25:3} but as little like him as young Cicero was his worthy father; or as wise Socrates’s children, who took after the mother altogether, as Seneca testifieth.

Ver. 8. But I wholly followed the Lord my God.] Heb., I fulfilled after the Lord. A metaphor taken from a ship under sail carried strongly with the wind, as if it feared neither rocks nor sands. Thus he commendeth himself, that none might tax him of injustice or ambition, for that which he was now about to require of Joshua.

Ver. 9. Whereon thy feet have trodden.] And whereon thy faith hath triumphed.

Because thou hast wholly followed.] See #Jos 14:8, and take notice that God’s retributions are more than bountiful.

Ver. 10. And now, behold, the Lord both kept me alive.] Which mercy was therefore the greater, because of these many thousands of others whose carcasses had fallen in the wilderness. How oft have the arrows of death come whisking by us, and yet we are alive!

Wandered in the wilderness.] By God’s command to and fro, backward and forward, as if they had been treading a maze.

I am this day fourscore and five years old.] Whereby it appeareth that they were near upon seven years in conquering of Canaan. Difficilia quae pulchra.

Ver. 11. As yet I am strong this day.] Viridis et vegeta senectus singulare Dei donum est {#De 34:7} Mr Dod, as he was another Moses for meekness, so for health of body in extreme old age; a mercy that he much valued. Deficere potius quam desinere visus est.

Ver. 12. Now therefore give me this mountain, ] i.e., This mountainous territory about Hebron, extraordinarily and without lot. That was a Lucifer like monk who said when he died, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes: and another proud Papist blusheth not to say in print, Caelum gratis non accipiam; I will not have heaven of free gift.

If so be the Lord will be with me.] This he speaketh not out of distrust, but self-denial; and to imply a difficulty, which yet doth but whet on heroic spirits.

Ver. 13. And Joshua blessed him.] He approved of his petition: he did not blame him for being too hasty, nor bid him stay till himself were first served; but granted him Hebron, helped him to gain it, {#Jos 10:37} and wished him much joy of it. Some think that Caleb afterwards yielded up Hebron to the Levites, and the rest of the tribes did the like, as glad of their company, by whom they might learn the ways of holiness, that lead to happiness.

Ver. 4. Because that he wholly, &c.] See #Jos 14:8,12.

Ver. 15. Was a great man.] Both for his person and power; but there is a double greatness: (1.) Belluine; (2.) Genuine. In that, a beast may and doth exceed us. In this, we exceed ourselves and others.

And the land had rest from war.] It had at last, bello confecto. See #Jos 10:23, from whence hitherto, is a digression.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. This then was the lot of the tribe, &c.] The lot came forth, up, or out {#Jos 19:1,10,17} of the bosom, lap, {#Pr 16:33} pot, or some other vessel in use for that purpose; for the manner of this lottery is not expressed: but that it was solemnly done with fasting and prayer premised, is probable; {#Jud 20:26 Ac 1:24} and that it was ordered by a divine providence, is certain. {#Pr 16:33} And hence it was that Judah’s lot came out first, and fell out in the best part of the land: to show that God had a purpose to exalt that tribe above the rest.

Ver. 2. And their south border.] See #Nu 34:2. Where God doth, as it were, draw a map of Canaan, and showeth the bounds of it on every side.

From the bay that looketh southward.] Heb., From the tongue: some render it from the promontory running out into the sea, in form of a tongue.

Ver. 3. To Maalehacrabbim, ] i.e., To the ascent of scorpions, or of the mountains that were crooked as scorpions, or that abounded with scorpions. {#Jud 1:36}

Passed along to Zin.] A city whence that wilderness, not the same with that of Sin or Sinai, had its name.

To Hezron, and went up to Adar.] These two places are {#Nu 34:4} called Hazaraddar.

Ver. 4. This shall be your south coast.] It is God that "determineth the times before appointed, and the bounds of our habitations"; {#Ac 17:26} the walls of his people’s houses are continually before him. {#Isa 49:16}

Ver. 5. The salt sea.] The lake of Sodom, into which the river Jordan runneth, and there endeth.

Ver. 6. To the stone of Bohan.] Which had its name for some unknown reason: so Migdalgad. {#Jos 15:37}

Ver. 7. At Enrogel.] Or, The fuller’s well; who hath his name in Hebrew from footing it, quia pedibus mundet vestes. So hath the talebearer. {#Ps 15:3}

Ver. 8. By the valley of the son of Hinnon.] Where with barbarous cruelty they sacrificed their children to Moloch, or Saturn. {#2Ki 23:11} Hence Gehenna for hell.

The same is Jerusalem.] Anciently Jebus, {#Jud 19:11} afterwards Jerusalem; not quasi ιερον σολυμων vel σολομωντος, as Hegesippus dreameth, but of Jireh, {#Ge 22:14} "he will provide," and Shalom, "peace." The Hebrew here and elsewhere writeth it in the dual form, as it were the double Jerusalem, the higher and the lower town, from which the apostle gathereth an allegory. {#Ga 4:15}

Ver. 9. Which is Kirjathjearim, ] i.e., Urbs nemorum. Vat.

Ver. 10. Unto mount Seir.] Not that of the Idumeans, but another of that name, from its roughness.

Ver. 11. Unto the side of Ekron.] Where Beelzebub was worshipped. Hence Acheron for hell,

“ Fiectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.’’—Virg.

Ver. 12. The great sea, ] i.e., The midland sea, great in comparison of the lakes of Palestine, called also seas.

Ver. 13. And unto Caleb.] See #Jos 14:13.

Ver. 14. And Caleb drove thence.] Nos quoque militemus, Heaven is not to be had sine sanguine et sudore, without pains, patience, violence.

Ver. 15. And the name of Debir before was Kirjathsepher.] Which signifieth a city of books, as Debir doth a secret and sacred place. Some think it was a University, or at least, that there was a famous library, such as was afterwards the Serapion at Alexandria, furnished with the best books by Ptolomy Philadelph, who was φιλολογωτατος βασιλευς, as Cyril noteth, a great lover of learning.

Ver. 16. To him will I give Achsah my daughter.] Yet with her consent, who as she was not to be forced, {#Ge 24:51,57} so she might not refuse without reason, and say—

“ Non amo te Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.’’—Martial.

Ver. 17. The son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb.] So that Othniel and Achsah were brothers’ children. Hence some infer the lawfulness of such marriages now.

Ver. 18. She moved him to ask.] Or, She moved her husband that she might ask another field. Covetousness is never contented, but still craving more, as the horse leeches’ daughters. Othniel hardly yielded to this motion, but she would have it so, and therefore lighted off her ass, either as discontented, or as desirous to present her request.

Ver. 19. Give me also springs of water, ] i.e., Other lands well watered, whence we may derive water to the rest.

And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.] What can a kind father deny his child? And shall not God give his dear children "upper and nether springs," blessings of both lives, bona throni et bona scabelli? and are they not worthily miserable that will not make themselves happy by asking? How confidently came Esau to his father for a blessing, and the prodigal for a child’s part! Now if men which are evil do give good things to their children that ask them: how much more will your heavenly Father? &c. See what he saith, {#Isa 45:11} "Ask me of things to come concerning" (or on the behalf of) "my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." Oh that we did but understand the latitude of this royal charter!

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. And the lot of the children of Joseph.] See #Jos 15:1.

From Jordan by Jericho.] On the north of Canaan, as Judah’s had fallen on the south: that these two strongest tribes might be as bulwarks to both sides of the kingdom. So in their march through the wilderness, in their several companies or brigades, God put a strong tribe to two weak tribes, as Judah to Issachar and Zebulon, &c. See #Isa 26:1 40:11.

Unto the water of Jericho.] Afterwards made no less famous than wholesome by Elisha’s healing of them. {#2Ki 2:21}

Ver. 2. Unto the borders of Archi.] Hushai’s country, {#2Sa 16:16} ennobled by his name, as Co was to Hippocrates, and little Hippo by great Augustine.

Ver. 3. And to Gezer.] Where the Canaanites held them till Solomon’s days; but were then slain by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, in favour of his daughter, Solomon’s wife. {#1Ki 9:16}

Ver. 4. Manasseh and Ephraim took their inheritance.] And it was a happiness to both that they lay together: but a shameful thing that afterwards it should be said, "Manasseh against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh; and they together against Judah." {#Isa 9:21}

Ver. 5. Was Atarothaddar unto Bethhoron the upper.] As there were two Bethhorons, so Eusebius telleth us that there were two Ataroths: one near Rama; the other, four miles distant from Samaria.

Ver. 6. Toward the sea.] Or, Westward by Michmethah, and then eastward by several towns here mentioned. These are ancient things, and to us hard to be understood.

Ver. 7. And came to Jericho, ] i.e., To the territories, but not to the town itself, for that was part of Benjamin’s lot. {#Jos 18:21}

Ver. 8. The border went out from Tappuah.] So called from the plenty of apples that grew there: as Perton in Worcestershire is from the plenty of pears.

Ver. 9. And the separate cities, &c.] Allotted to Ephraim, a numerous tribe, within the portion of Manasseh.

Ver. 10. And they drave not out.] Which is nothing for their commendation; but discovereth either their cowardice or covetousness, or both.

But the Canaanites dwell, &c.] {See Trapp on "Jos 16:3"} They would not yield: so that Pharaoh was forced to fire their town. {#1Ki 9:16}

Chapter 17

Ver. 1. For he was the firstborn of Joseph.] And so had right to a double portion. {#De 21:17}

For Machir the firstborn of Manasseh.] Indeed, his only son. See the like expression in #Mt 1:25.

Because he was a man of war.] Machir was: or if he was dead by this time, -as he was, or else he was very old, -by Machir is meant his posterity the Machirites (#Nu 26:29; compare #Jud 5:14).

Therefore he had Gilead, ] i.e., Half Gilead; for Reuben had the other half.

Ver. 2. For the rest of the children of Manasseh.] That is, for his grand-children by Gilead, {#Nu 26:29} who were yet unprovided of a portion, and were to receive it beyond Jordan in the land of Canaan.

Ver. 3. But Zelophehad.] These daughters of his are commended by their names, by their masculine faith, and by their modesty in suing for their portion. See their plea and success in #Nu 27:1-3, &c.

Ver. 4. He gave them an inheritance.] But with this caution, that they should not marry out of their own tribe. {#Nu 36:6}

Ver. 5. And there fell ten portions to Manasseh.] Six to his six sons, {#Jos 17:2} and the rest to Zelophehad’s daughters.

Ver. 6. Because the daughters of Manasseh.] Here was no Salic law to exclude them. In many women, besides their sex, there is nothing womanlike, or weak souls have no sexes; and women’s bodies are of a more exact composition, &c.

Ver. 7. And the coast of Manasseh was from Asher.] Which was a town, say some, seated at the south-east end of Manasseh’s lot.

Ver. 8. Belonged to the children of Ephraim.] These two tribes were one within another, yet did not well agree.

“ Fratrum concordia rara est.”

Ver. 9. See #Jos 17:8; and take heed of unnatural wars and bickerings.

“ Nullos habitura triumphos.”

Ver. 10. And the sea is his border.] The Syrian or Midland Sea.

And they met together in Asher on the north, and in Issachar on the east.] And yet their spirits lay sometimes like that haven in #Ac 27:12, "toward the south-west and north-west," two opposite points.

Ver. 11. Bethshean.] Afterwards called Scythopolis. {#/RAPC 2Ma 12:29}

Ver. 12. Could not drive out.] As their fathers could not enter the promised land, so neither could they possess it, "because of unbelief."

Ver. 13. They did not utterly.] This was their covetousness; they kept them and squeezed them, as the Papists do at this day deal by the Jews that live amongst them.

Ver. 14. And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua.] Presuming, it may be, on his nearness unto them in blood and kindred, as being of the same tribe. But this did nothing sway him from a course of justice: the sun might sooner be turned out of his track, as it was once said of Fabricius. Joshua will not be partial, or gratify his kinsmen by scanting others, but putteth them upon labour.

Why hast thou given me but one lot?] Two they had, but they reckon it but for one, through discontent. The world is full of such μεμψιμοιροι, who know not when they are pleased, but are ready to complain both full and fasting.

Ver. 15. If thou be a great people.] Thus he retorteth their arguments upon themselves, that if they were so numerous, they were the better able to enlarge their borders by their own endeavours, though it might be to their pains and peril.

Get thee up to the wood.] Where many hands may make light work, and soon lay all level, fit for thy use.

If mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.] And so thou want room, as bees do, that for like cause, do hang out of the hive’s mouth on heaps.

Ver. 16. And the Canaanites…have chariots of iron.] Which were first a terror, and then a scorn, as was before noted out of Vegetius. But where there wanteth a heart, there is never wanting some lion in the way, {#Pr 22:13 26:13} yea, two lions for failing, one in the fields, and another in the streets: so here. The hill is not enough for us, and the Canaanites are too hard for us.

Ver. 17. Thou art a great people, and hast great power.] And therefore it were a shame for thee to want room, to despair of victory, having God’s promise for thine encouragement, and being so well able to deal with the enemy: η ταν η επι ταν, said she to her son, when she gave him a shield, and sent him forth to the battle: Either bring this back with thee, or be thou brought back dead upon it. Either vanquish or die, said the Black Prince’s father to him at the battle of Cressy, where he was in great distress. So saith Joshua here to his contribules: If you want room, cut your way through a wood of men, through a forest of wood; cast not perils, but venture and prosper.

“"Audaces Deus ipse iuvat.”

Ver. 18. But the mountain shall be thine.] Since God hath promised it, thou art bound to believe it; and being armed with God, and going on in his strength, thou shalt do great exploits, and devour greatest difficulties. Faith eateth its way through the Alps of whatsoever opposition, and sticketh at nothing.

For thou shalt drive out the Canaanites.] Through the help of the Almighty, who will not fail thee, but give thee to feel and find, Quod nequaquam frustra nititur qui Deo innititur, that he laboureth not in vain who feareth God. Haec autem omnia cum suis tribulibus Iehoshuah quodammodo egit pertinacius, saith Junius. {a} Valiant Joshua seemeth here to bespeak his kinsmen, as once the Prince of Orange did his soldiers at the battle of Newport, where they had the sea on one side and the Spaniards on the other: If, said he, you will live, you must either eat up these Spaniards, or drink up this sea. {b} So here; either you must cast out these Canaanites, as you may, or still want room, as you must.

{a} Annot. in Loc.

{b} Hist. of Netherl.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. Assembled together at Shiloh.] {a} Which, both by the signification of the name, and by the situation of the place, seemeth to some to be the same with Salem, Melchizedek’s city, whose palace, Jerome saith, was in his time to be seen in the city Salem, near whereunto John baptized, {#Joh 3:23} which also, {#Ge 33:18} according to his translation and the Seventy’s, is called the city of the Sichemites, because it stood in the country of the Shechemites, as did also Shiloh. {#Jos 24:25,26 18:1 Ge 35:4 Jud 9:6 21:9}

And set up the tabernacle.] According to #De 12:5 Jer 7:12; and here the tabernacle abode for above three hundred years, till for sin it was removed thence. {#Jer 7:8} All that I fear, saith a reverend divine {b} yet living, is, lest according to Mr Herbert’s prophecy it prove true, viz., that the gospel be, in its solar motion, travelling for the west and American parts, and quitting its present places of residence and unworthy professors and possessors: and then, farewell, England.

{a} Ut enim םלשׁ pacificam denotat et tranquillam, { #Ge 34:21 Na 1:12} ita et הלשׁ. {#Da 6:1} Unde et Messias "Shiloh" appellatur.

{b} Mr Baxter.

Ver. 2. Seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance.] Nor, as it may seem by the next verse, cared to do, because they saw there would be a necessity of waging a new war. Hence it was seven years, say expositors, ere they set upon this second division of the land, living on the spoils they had taken in the conquest of the country, and giving themselves to ease and pleasure.

Ver. 3. How long are you slack?] Quousque estis cessatores? Lata negligentia dolus est, saith the Civilian: Remissness is a kind of perfidiousness. Their posterity were infamous for their idleness, and are to this day a lazy, nasty people. A certain emperor marching through Jewry, and beholding it to be a goodly land, but without culture and tillage, through the slothfulness of the people, cried out, O Marcomanni, O Sarmatae, O Quadi, &c, : O lazy Germans, I have found a people more lazy than any of you!

Ver. 4. Give out from amongst you three men.] Geodaetae, men skilful in surveying and map making; men of courage also and vigour, that dare undertake and can carry on such a dangerous enterprise.

Ver. 5. And they shall divide it.] With all indifferency, and so prevent all suspicion of partiality in those that were afterward to divide it by lot. "Provide things honest in the sight of all men." {#Ro 12:17} "Give none offence." {#1Co 10:32}

Ver. 6. That I may cast lots here for you before the Lord.] He it is that must judge of your proceedings, and to whom you must approve yourselves: see therefore that ye deal uprightly and impartially; since to God you must be accountable. Cave, spectat Cato, was a watchword among the Romans.

Ver. 7. But the Levites, &c.] See on #Jos 13:14.

Ver. 8. And the men arose and went away.] Without debates or delays, as if they had had wings and "wind in their wings," as #Zec 5:9. God, saith Luther, loveth curristas, not quaeristas: such as will run and not reason, despatch and not dispute his commands.

Ver. 9. And the men went and passed through the land.] The Lord securing them according as their trust was in him. Deo confisi nunquam confusi. A believer walketh through the world as a conqueror, being safe guarded by the peace of God within him, {#Php 4:7} and the power of God without him. {#1Pe 1:5} He committeth all his ways to God, depending upon him for direction and success, {#Ps 37:5} resting on his might and mercy in time of dread, {#Ps 69:3} yet ever careful to serve God’s providence by use of lawful means, and not to thrust himself into unnecessary dangers. {#Pr 28:26}

And came again to Joshua.] After seven months, saith Josephus.

Ver. 10. In Shiloh.] Whither was now removed from Gilgal both the tabernacle and the camp, as a place more convenient.

Ver. 11. Between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.] This was as well as heart could wish; what could God do more for Jacob’s darling, and for the fulfilling of Moses’s prophecy? {#De 33:12} It is a great happiness doubtless to be well neighboured; and yet a greater to be near the place where God’s honour dwelleth. The league betwixt Judah and Benjamin lasted, as if they had been but one tribe, when the rest revolted with Jeroboam. The city of Jerusalem was divided betwixt them, though the greater part of it belonged to Benjamin, and when the Jebusites were to be thence expelled, both these tribes joined their forces together, {#Jud 1:8,21} as Judah and Simeon did in a like case. {#Jud 1:3}

Ver. 12-14. See the notes above on chap. 15,16.

Chapter 19

Ver. 1. Within the inheritance of the children of Judah.] The reason whereof, see #Jos 19:9. And Judah yielded, as being rationis mancipium; - the wisdom from above is peaceable, gentle, and easy to be persuaded; -yea, {#Jas 3:17} Judah parted afterwards with another fleece also. {#Jos 19:40,41} Concedamus de nostro iure, ut careamus lite. {a}

{a} Augustine.

Ver. 2-4, &c. These, though but bare names of places, should not be skipped over in our course of reading, as being a part of God’s Holy Word: but to speak particularly of their signification or site, would be a work of more difficulty than use: and besides, it is but curiosity to search into those things whereof we can neither have proof nor profit.

Ver. 9. Out of the portion.] See #Jos 19:1.

Was too much for them.] More than came to their share, or more than they could man or manage.

Had their inheritance within the inheritance of them.] And so Jacob’s prophecy was fulfilled; {#Ge 49:7} an argument of the divinity of the Scriptures.

Ver. 12. Chislothtabor.] A mountain in the lower Galilee, called by Josephus, Itabirion. Here it is commonly conceived that our Saviour was transfigured. And of this place Jerome, on #Ho 5:1, writeth copiously and elegantly.

Ver. 13. To Gittahhepher.] Jonah the prophet’s birthplace, {#2Ki 14:25} and therefore the better thought of by God. {#Ps 87:6} {See Trapp on "Ps 87:6"}

Ver. 18. And their border was toward Jezreel, &c.] In a rich and fat soil, according to that was foretold by Jacob and Moses; {#Ge 49:14,15 De 33:18,19} -"And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant: and he bowed his shoulders to bear, and became a servant to tribute." This was a low poor spirit, and his posterity were, for the general, very unworthy and vile: for his lot here fell in Galilee. Now "doth any good come from Galilee?" saith good Nathanael.

Ver. 28. Unto great Zidon.] See #Jos 11:8.

Ver. 29. To the strong city Tyre.] Founded upon a rock, environed with rocks, and encircled by the sea; whence she held herself invincible, but was sacked by great Alexander, and two thousand of her inhabitants were crucified. Let not the strong man glory in his strength.

Ver. 40. For the tribe of the children of Dan.] Who also, as well as Simeon, had various cities taken out of the first lot of the tribe of Judah. See on #Jos 19:1.

Ver. 47. Went up to fight against Leshem.] Called Laish in #Jud 18:7 Where they turned open idolaters, and are therefore cut out of the roll of Christ’s people. {#Re 7 1Ch 7}

Ver. 49. When they had made an end of dividing.] Joshua was content to be last served, who had best deserved: such was his humility and modesty.

The children of Israel gave.] He took it as a gift, whenas it was his right by God’s own appointment, as it is in the next verse, "According to the word of the Lord," sc., that he and Caleb for their good service {#Nu 14:24,30} should have whatsoever they best liked in the land.

Among them.] Among the many; in the barren mountains. This Jerome noteth in his epistle upon Paula. He saith she visited the sepulchre of Joshua, Et mirata est quod distributor possessionum sibi montana et aspera deligisset, and she wondered that he who had divided the land to others, had set out for himself so mean a preferment.

Ver. 50. Even Timnathserah.] Called also Timnathheres in #Jud 2:9; that is, the figure of the sun, because, belike, there the sun had been worshipped: another Heliopolis.

And he built the city.] An old ruinous city, but by him repaired and beautified, that there he might spend and end his days.

“ Regum aequabat opes animis.”

And well he might have engraven over his gates that distich of Ennius concerning Scipio—

“ Si fas (caedendo / cedendo) caelestia scandere cuiquam,

Mi soli caeli maxima porta pater."

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. The Lord also spake unto Joshua.] Whether in a sensible apparition, or prophetic revelation, or otherwise: for "at sundry times and in divers manner God spake to those ancients." {#Heb 1:1}

Ver. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel.] They had been spoken to before by Moses to do thus but made no haste to do it: such is men’s slackness in procuring the good of others.

Appoint out for you cities of refuge.] Susceptionis aut recollectionis, for the preservation of man’s precious life, if causelessly sought after: not such sanctuaries of roguery as Romulus opened about the beginning of his reign to bring more company about him: nor as the Romanists now-a-days do for wilfnl murderers and other wicked persons, who should be pulled from the altar to the halter, as Joab was. See #Ex 21:14. If a malefactor be going to execution, and a cardinal meeting him put his red hat upon his head, he is thereby free immediately, Proh nefas! The scripture saith, "A man that doeth violence to the blood of any person shall flee to the pit; let no man stay him." {#Pr 28:17} But the Pope professeth to have power to dispense against the New Testament and the Old: which made Sir Walter Raleigh say, that if he were to choose a religion for licentious liberty, he would become a Papist.

Ver. 3. That killeth any person unawares and unwittingly.] Not presumptuously, with a high hand, and of forethought malice; but either by chance medley, as they call it, or in his own necessary defence, when he must either kill or be killed, and he cannot avoid it. For that tenet of Soto is false, Defensio cum interfectione est licita, quia fuga est ignominiosa.

Ver. 4. And when he that doth flee unto one of these cities.] Which were to be cities of Levites, who were presumed to be both wise and merciful men, and such as would not favour wilful offenders. These cities also were to be at a just distance, that the party might repair thereunto from all parts in due time. And lastly, a way thereunto was to be paved, and marks of direction set up, as some note from #De 19:2,3.

They shall take him into the city unto them.] God’s laws are not as Draco’s, that punished every peccadillo almost with death; and were, therefore, said to be written not with black but with blood. Howbeit that saying of King James is memorable, that if God did allow him to kill a man, though by casualty or beside his intention, he should think that God did not love him.

Ver. 5. And if the avenger of blood pursue after him.] Sanguinem pro interfecto posuit, saith Vatablus. If he in the heat of revenge, without taking leisure to consider the fault as well as the fact, and the degree of it, &c., for all faults are not equal, as the Stoics hold, neither are they to be alike punished. If the guilt of an evil conscience pursue after us, as it will, let us run to Christ our rock of refuge, our sanctuary of safety, and none shall be able to take us out of his hands: he and the Father are one. {#Joh 10:30}

Ver. 6. Until he stand before the congregation for judgment.] Until his cause be tried, and the truth bolted out, that he may be cleared or doomed by the judges, with the assent of the people, whose voice should be Currat lex, fiat iustitia, ruat orbis.

Until the death of the high priest.] So long he shall live; in exile howsoever, because he should have looked better to it, there having been some heedlessness in the business. Besides, the high priest was amongst men the chief god upon earth, and so the offence did chiefly strike against him: lest, therefore, such an offender should happen to come into his presence, he might not be at liberty till the high priest’s death. Philo saith that the high priest was not to behold at any time any mournful object. Similarly among the Romans, Tiberius, counterfeiting grief for the death of Drusus, had a veil laid betwixt the dead and him at the funeral, that he might not see the body; because, forsooth, the high priest is a sacred thing, and the devil loveth to be God’s ape. See on #Nu 35:25.

Ver. 7. And they appointed Kedesh.] Heb., They sanctified Kedesh; where there is an elegancy in the Hebrew that cannot be Anglised. These cities of refuge belonged all to the Levites, who were best able to judge and to interpose betwixt party and party, both in respect of authority and advice. The priests’ lips were both to preserve knowledge, and to present it to the people.

And Shechem in mount Ephraim.] All of them in mountains or on plains, that they might the sooner be seen and more easily repaired unto: so precious in the sight of the Lord is the death, not of his saints only, though chiefly, but of his reasonable creatures. He is the preserver of men, and delighteth to show his philanthropy, or love to all.

Ver. 8. They assigned Bezer.] That is, They confirmed and ratified them according as Moses had assigned, and set them apart for such a use.

Ver. 9. And for the stranger that sojourneth.] Who dwelt with them for a time, and were not of the same religion: or such only as were proselyted.

Until he stood before the congregation.] Till, after the death of the high priest, and the avenger’s wrath qualified, he be restored and re-established in his own house, under the security of public protection. {a}

{a} Diod.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. Then came near the heads of the fathers.] Some are of opinion that the chief of the priests and Levites did here demand their due when they were not thought of, but by great oversight were passed over in the division. But others, for better reason, hold that they came near now in the proper season, because they were to have their cities and inheritances out of the several tribes and portions allotted unto them, which also they had with very good will, and to a very fair proportion. Once amongst us, the statute of Mortmain provided that men should give no more to the church; so liberal were our forefathers to their clergy. But tempora mutantur; these later times have seen the springs of bounty, like Jordan, turned back, which heretofore did run fresh and fast in to the church. How apt are men to dispute God out of his own, and to begrudge his ministers a competent subsistence; to allow the ox nothing but the straw for treading out the grain, and so much straw as themselves please! This is a sure sign of gasping devotion, and of cursed covetousness, as that great apostle coneludeth. {#2Co 9:5} The Levites, under the law, had a liberal and honourable maintenance by God’s own appointment. Besides all the rest of their incomes by sacrifices, freewill offerings, &c., here they have their cities to dwell in, with the suburbs thereof for their cattle, and those of due belonging to them by virtue of God’s command, whom only, and not the people, they were to acknowledge for their benefactor. Neither hath he made worse provision for the ministers of the gospel than he did for the priests of the law. See #1Co 9:13,14. But many have learned of Julian the apostate, to take away ministers’ maintenance, pretending conscience, for that too much living was a burden to them, and a hindrance to their ministry.

Ver 2. The Lord commanded.] He left not his Levites to the will and devotion of the people: for then they should have had Micah’s allowance, {#Jud 17:10} prisoners’ pittances, such as will neither keep them alive, nor suffer them to die. Spoliantur parochiae et scholae, non aliter ac si tame necare nos velint, is Luther’s complain: they keep us so poor as if they meant to famish us all. Therefore the Lord commanded, as here; lest men should deal by his Levites, as Louis XI of France did by his chaplains, to whom he allowed twenty shillings a month, whereas to his barber, John Cottier, he allowed ten thousand crowns a month.

Ver. 3. These cities and their suburbs.] In their cities others dwelt with them: for how could they subsist without those of other professions? See #Ezr 2:70. And as for the suburbs, they were for pasture, pleasure, and other country commodities, not for tillage; for the Levites were not to have any such employment. {#Nu 18:20-24}

Ver. 4. Out of the tribe of Judah, &c.] The priests, by a sweet providence, were placed in those three tribes that were nearest to the tabernacle and temple, that they might do their work with more ease to themselves and content to the people.

Ver. 5. And the rest of the children of Kohath.] Thus the Levites were dispersed throughout the land—as salt is sprinkled upon meat, to keep it from putrifying; "ye are the salt of the earth" {#Mt 5:13}—for instruction of the people; and herein that malediction, #Ge 49:7, was turned into a benediction. It were happy if every congregation had an able minister. To many churches here at the first Reformation, for want of preachers, readers were sent; whence one of the martyrs wished that every able minister might have ten congregations committed to his charge till further provision could be made.

Ver. 12. Gave they to Caleb.] Who was glad, no doubt, of the Levites’ so near neighbourhood and good company, to instruct him and his in the law of the Lord, and to exhort them to obedience, which the best are too backward to, and may need monitors and remembrancers. {#2Pe 1:12}

Chapter 22

Ver. 1. Then Joshua called the Reubenites.] That he might disband and dismiss them, with due commendation and remuneration, as became a noble general.

Ver. 2. Ye have kept all that Moses, &c.] Christ, the Captain of our salvation, shall in like sort set forth and celebrate the virtues and praise worthy practices of his servants and soldiers in that great Panegyris at the last day, saying, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a kingdom." {#Lu 22:28,29}

Ver. 3. Ye have not left your brethren these many days.] Seven years at least; some say more, even twice seven: which long absence from their own families, friends, and estates, left in a land so lately conquered, and that upon such a difficult and dangerous undertaking, was an undoubted evidence of their singular constancy and fidelity toward their brethren.

Ver. 5. But take diligent heed to do the commandment.] He had commended them before for this, that they had "kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord their God," {#Jos 22:3} but he would have them to "abound more and more." {#1Th 4:1 1Jo 5:13}

Ver. 6. So Joshua blessed them.] That is, He besought God to bless them, and so took a friendly farewell of them: they had both his benediction and his valediction at parting. Courtesy may very well stand with piety, so it be real and heart sprung.

Ver. 7. Then he blessed them.] See #Jos 22:6.

Ver. 8. Return with much riches.] War is generally hateful—the poets fain that Mars, of all their gods, was most hated by Jupiter—and hurtful to mankind: yet the Hollanders are said to grow rich by it. These in the text did so, for a reward of their good service. "By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life." {#Pr 22:4}

Divide the spoil, &c.] Praecipit illis dilectionem proximi. Let those share with you, that, staying at home, tilled your grounds and safe-guarded your families. This was agreeable to a law made by Moses, {#Nu 31:27} and revived by David. {#1Sa 30:24,25}

Ver. 9. According to the word of the Lord, &c.] {#Nu 32:20-22} God yielded to their desires, though inordinate: but then they were afterwards, as is well observed, the first that were carried captive out of their land. {#1Ch 5:25,26} Strong affections cause strong afflictions.

Ver. 10. Built there an altar.] After the pattern of that in the tabernacle, but for a civil use.

A great altar to see to.] Magnificum et spectabilem; and this, of no ill intent, however misinterpreted.

Ver. 11. And the children of Israel heard say.] Fame had soon blown her trumpet: but is, mostly, a loud liar—

“ Tam ficti privique tenax quam nuncia veri.’’—Virg.

Ver. 12. To go up to war against them.] According to #De 13:13, &c., so blessedly blown up were they with a zeal for God—the Levites also and Manassites, though of the same tribe; howbeit this holy fire was not without some smoke.

Ver. 13. And the children of Israel sent.] As they had good reason, considering the mischief of civil war, which ever is utrinque triste: and if victory be gotten, yet no triumph, because it is like a golden fish hook, which lost or broken cannot be paid for with that it taketh. Plutarch observeth that the state of the Roman empire flourished so long as Romulus’s spear kept green and sappy; but decayed when it dried, which was about the beginning of the civil wars.

Phinehas the son of Eleazar.] Who was one of a thousand; famous for his zeal, and no less eminent for his knowledge and wisdom, wherewith zeal must be tempered, or else all will be out of order: as the ancient philosophers supposed of the Primum Mobile, that if the motion thereof were not finely cooled and allayed by the Caelum Chrystallinum next to it, it would set all the orbs on fire.

Ver. 14. Of each chief house.] Of the half tribe of Manasseh for one; which is here reckoned for a tribe, because they had a stomach for God against those of their own flesh and blood.

Ver. 15. And they spake with them, saying.] Cuncta prius tentanda…Omne bellum sumitur facile: caeterum agerrime desinit, saith Sallust. {a} Therefore Philip of Macedon wrought more by treaties than by arms, as Polyaenus {b} observeth, and held it the far better way.

{a} Sal., in Jugur.

{b} ουκ ελαττω δι ομιλιας η δια μαχης κατειργαζετο.—Polyaen. Strat., lib. iv.

Ver. 16. What trespass is this?] Idolatry is a wickedness with a witness; and they that withdraw from God, do it to the perdition of their souls. {#Heb 10:39}

In that ye have builded you an altar.] Another besides that in the tabernacle: whereas God will have but one altar, for a figure of Christ’s cross, which was the only true altar.

That ye might rebel.] Wilful disobedience is open rebellion, yea, it is blasphemy. {#Eze 20:27} But why were these good men, that found the fault, so faulty themselves in passing this rash and harsh censure upon a sinister suspicion, upon a mere mistake? Ea quemque ansa prehendamus quae commode teneri potest, saith Epictetus. If one action had a hundred faces, saith another, we should always cast our sight upon the fairest: "Charity hopeth all things, thinketh no evil"; {#1Co 13:5,7} holdeth that things are reverenter glossanda, as one said of the pontifician law, to have a reverent gloss put upon them. Quarrels grow many times upon mistakes. Cyril, and John, bishop of Antioch, excommunicated one another for heresy on each side objected: so did Cyril and Theodoret; yet afterwards they found that they held the same things, when once they grew to a right understanding of one another’s meaning. {a}

{a} Act. Conc. Ephesin.

Ver. 17. Is the iniqity of Peor too little for us?] But that by heaping up sin to sin, we must needs heap up more wrath, and not rather redeem our own sorrows? should we be thus ambitious of our own ruin? and have we not yet sufficiently smarted Oh, what bloody wails left God upon our backs at that time! and is all forgotten? Cur turbatis κοινωφελες? Why bring ye the heavy hand of God upon us all by this your revolt? that he should now pay us home for the new and the old?

Ver. 18. That tomorrow he will be wroth, ] i.e., Ere long: punishment treadeth upon the heels of sin. Peccantes sequitur ultor a tergo Deus.

Ver. 19. Be unclean.] In your opinion at least; for to the pure all things are pure: and God may be enjoyed in one place as well as another. {#1Ti 2:3}

And take possession among us.] Though we have room little enough, yet better bear an inconvenience than a mischief: better we be distressed than God dishonoured, and the public hazarded to God’s hot and heavy displeasure.

Ver. 20. Did not Achan, &c.] This is the true use of history, -to be warned by it: God therefore hangeth some malefactors up in gibbets as it were: Cavebis autem, si pavebis.

And wrath fell on all.] For that one: how much more for you many. One sinner destroyeth oft much good. {#Ec 9:18} Achan perished not alone, but his whole family with him; besides those thirty slain by the men of Ai.

Ver. 21. Answered, and said.] They did not bristle and set up the crest, but sought to give satisfaction to their offended brethren. It must be our endeavour neither to give offence carelessly, nor to take offence causelessly: but to "show out of a good conversation our works with meekness of wisdom." {#Jas 3:13}

Ver. 22. The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods.] This repetition is very emphatical and pathetical, expressing "their carefulness, their apology, their indignation, their fear, their vehement desire, their zeal," {#2Co 7:11} their utter detestation of such an abomination.

Save us not this day.] Let God deprive us, if. guilty, of safety here, and salvation hereafter.

Ver. 23. Let the Lord himself require it.] So great is the confidence of a clear conscience. {#Ge 20:5} As for sedition, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I may so say, saith Latimer in a sermon of his before King Edward VI.

Ver. 24. And if we have not rather done it.] In communionis symbolum: to a quite contrary purpose. The ten tribes therefore were to blame for misconstruing them. Quid minus est non dico Oratoris sed hominis, quam id obiecere adversario quod si ille verbo negarit, ulterius progredi non possis? {a} Say the best of things.

{a} Cicero.

Ver. 25. So shall your children, &c.] This their care of posterity’s spiritual good, was very commendable and imitable. But

“Εργμασιν εν μεγαλοις πασιν αδειν χαλεπαν.”

Ver. 26. To build us an altar, not for burnt offering, &c.] This they often deny, and disclaim as a thing they abhorred. So John Baptist "confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ." {#Joh 1:20} He did it frequently, solemnly, Verbis non solum desertis sed et exsertis. he thrust away that honour with both hands earnestly, as knowing the danger of falling into the punishing hands of a just and jealous God.

Ver. 27. But that it may be a witness.] Of our care to hold communion with you in the sincere service of God, by our engraving some inscription upon it, or keeping in our treasury of monuments some public record, when, by whom, or to what end that altar was built.

Ver. 28. But it is a witness.] See #Jos 22:27.

Ver. 29. God forbid that we.] As it is a folly to be hot in a cold matter, so it is a great fault to be cold in a hot. See #Ac 17:16,17, &c., "his spirit was stirred," he was in a holy fit, and he bestirred him accordingly.

Ver. 30. It pleased them.] Heb., It was good in their eyes; they showed themselves free from malignity and morosity: {#Ro 1:29} they were well satisfied, and well apaid that all was so well.

Ver. 31. And Phinehas.] Who here showed himself to be, as an ambassador should be, Vir bonus dicendi peritus; a good man and well spoken.

This day we perceive that the Lord is among us.] Since we are all of one heart and one soul in his service, and you are not guilty of this apostasy. Of bees they say that stir and strife among them is a sign their queen is about to remove, to leave the hive, and to be gone. So God; dissension driveth him from a people, and lets in dissolution.

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. Joshua waxed old.] And so more fit to give counsel than now to act great exploits, εργα νεων, βουλαι δε γερονων. Howbeit he was willing to show that although he was old and withering, yet "the root of the matter was in him"; and like the rose, he kept his sweet savour, though he had lost his lovely colour.

Ver. 2. I am old and stricken in age.] Audite senem iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt, said old Augustus to his mutineers, and settled them.

“ Tanta fuit quondam capitis reverentia cani,

Inque sou precio ruga senilis erat.”

Ver. 3. And ye have seen all that the Lord your God.] Joshua intituleth God to all his conquests so did David, and our Richard I. So have we vanquished the king of France at Gisors, said he in his letter to Philip Bishop of Duresme; howbeit, we have not done the same, but Dieu et mon droit God and our right, by us. And the like did our Henry V at the battle of Agincourt; and our late thrice noble generals in their highest achievements at home and abroad. {a}

{a} Hoveden, fol. 445. Speed, 799.

Ver. 4, . With all the nations that I have cut off.] That is, God by my hands, {as #Jos 23:3} for he it was who taught mine hands to war, and my fingers to fight.

Ver. 5. And drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess.] The same Hebrew word Jarash here signifieth to possess and to dispossess. Canaanites shall be cast out of what they get or detain from God’s people.

Ver. 6. Be ye therefore very courageous.] Get good store of spiritual mettle, which is got by prayer, and maketh a man invincible. Of cowards they were wont to say in Rome, that there was nothing Roman in them: of many amongst us it may be said, There is nothing Christian in them.

Ver. 7. That ye come not among these nations.] For if ye once give way to come amongst them and converse with them, you will easily and quickly be drawn to do worse; even all that is here mentioned, to make honourable mention of their gods, to swear by them, to serve them, &c. Sin is wondrous catching, and contagious, and Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.

Ver. 8. As ye have done unto this day, ] viz., Since I have had the governance of you, Vita Principis censura est, imo Cynosura: the life of the prince is the loade star of the Commonwealth, Magnates magnetes; good governors make good people: and on the contrary, Qualis rix, talis grex.

Ver. 9. For the Lord hath driven out.] He hath and he will, if you hinder not your own happiness by breach of covenant.

No man hath been able to stand before you.] None of all those who either have assailed you, or have been assaulted by you.

Ver. 10. He it is that fighteth for you.] He who alone is a whole army of men, van and rear, both. {#Isa 52:12} He who "strengtheneth" and weakeneth "the arm" of either party, {#Eze 30:24} and rendereth their weapons vain or prosperous. {#Isa 54:17}

Ver. 11. Take heed therefore unto yourselves.] Heb., To your souls, that chief part of yourselves, the welfare whereof lieth upon it.

Ver. 12. Else, if ye do in any wise go back.] Apostates cannot choose to themselves a worse condition; there is martial law for such: they "draw back to perdition." {#Heb 10:39}

And cleave unto the remnant.] It is not safe to seek the association of others in a sinful way. Jehoshaphat smarted for joining with Ahab: Hunniades, for cleaving to that perjured Popish king at the battle of Varna: the Greek Church, for calling in the help of the Latin Church against the Turk; subjecting themselves to the Bishop of Rome.

Ver. 13. But they shall be snares and traps unto you.] As the fowler catcheth birds, and the hunter wild beasts in their snares and traps; so shall these Canaanites catch you by their familiarity and commerce, and draw you to participate in their sins and plagues.

And scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes.] They shall by their injuries vex and disquiet you, they shall with sharpest weapons prick and gore your tenderest parts, without mercy or measure.

Ver. 14. And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth.] I am a dying man: and the words of dying men are held to be living oracles: let therefore these last words of mine sink into your souls, and stick by you when I shall go hence and be no more seen. {#2Pe 1:13}

Ver. 15. So shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things.] To the sweetness of the promises he fitly adjoineth the tartness of the menaces. Sour and sweet make the best sauce: promises and threatenings mingled serve to keep the heart in the best temper.

Ver. 16. And ye shall perish quickly from off the good land.] This judgment Joshua inculcateth, {#Jos 23:13-16} because he knew it would be very grievous to them to forego so goodly a land so lately gotten, and so little a while enjoyed. In the beginning of a speech τα ηθη milder affections suit best; but toward the end thereof τα παθη, saith the orator, passionate and piercing passages. This rule Joshua here observeth, being ex utroque Caesar, no less an orator than a warrior, as hath been already observed.

Chapter 24

Ver. 1. And Joshua gathered all the tribes to Shechem.] The chief city of Ephraim, near to old Joshua, who called this parliament thither, and not far from mount Gerizim and mount Ebal, where the people had lately renewed their covenant, which they were now to do again; and the identity of the place might be some advantage: whence it is that they that give rules of direction concerning prayer, do advise us, amongst other helps, to accustom ourselves to the same place.

And they presented themselves before God, ] i.e., Before the ark brought hither for the purpose.

Ver. 2. And Joshua said unto all the people.] Besides what he had said to them in the former chapter; so solicitous was he of the public welfare after his decease also. Cicero saith that this was his chiefest care: we are sure it was good Joshua’s.

Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood, ] i.e., Of the river Euphrates, that ancient river. And this was the ancient manner of speaking to the people, by giving them a historical narrative of what God had done for them and their forefathers, that mercy might enforce to duty; since divine blessings are binders, and men’s offences are increased by their obligations. See the like method made use of by those admirable preachers, David, {#Ps 78} Stephen, {#Ac 7:2-53} and Paul. {#Ac 13:17-41}

And they served other gods.] Even Abraham as well as the rest, {a} till God gave him a call out of his own country, till he had "called him to his foot," {#Isa 41:2} that is, to follow him and his direction, to obey him without solicitation.

{a} Some of the Rabbis say that Terah got his living by making and selling of images.

Ver. 3. And gave him Isaac.] Effaetae fidei filium, the heir of the covenant, and therein more happy than his brother Ishmael, with all those twelve princes which he begot. {#Ge 17:20,21}

Ver. 4. But Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.] Where they were held under hard servitude, while Esau and his posterity flourished in mount Seir, having the fat of the earth’s good store, that they might fry the better in hell.

Ver. 5. And I brought you out.] As brands out of the fire; as many of you here present as were then under twenty years of age: and a great mercy it was to be pulled out of such a superstitious place. Gregory Nazianzen reporteth of Athens, that it was the most plagueful place in the world for superstition, even another Egypt. And he acknowledgeth it a great mercy that God did deliver him and Basil from those infections.

Ver. 6. Unto the Red Sea.] Yea, into the Red Sea God made them a fair way till they were in the midst, and then overcovered them. {#Jos 24:7}

Ver. 7. And ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.] Where ye had pluviam escatilem et petram aquatilem, as Tertullian phraseth it: never was prince so served in his greatest pomp as ye were all that while.

Ver. 8. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites.] Whose iniquity was now grown full, {#Ge 15:16} and come up to a just measure of merit of extraordinary vengeance from above. The bottle of wickedness, when once filled with those bitter waters, will surely sink to the bottom.

Ver. 9. Then Balak…arose and warred against Israel.] He did not actually war against them. {#Jud 11:25} Sed fieri dicitur quod tentatur aut intenditur, saith Ribera upon #Am 9:5. He did not, because he durst not. Howbeit, because he intended, if he could have compassed it, to fight with Israel, and prepared for that purpose, it is spoken of as a done thing. So Haman is said to have "laid his hands upon the Jews," because he attempted it; {#Es 8:7} and the Jews to have stoned Christ, because they could have found in their hearts to have done it. {#Joh 10:31-33}

“Qui, quid non potuit, non facit, ille facit.”

Ver. 10. Therefore he blessed you still] Though full sore against his mind, as loath to lose so fair a preferment; till at length he resolved to curse, whatever came of it, and therefore went not, as at other times, to his altar, but "set his face toward the wilderness." {#Nu 24:1,2} "Howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing," said that good Nehemiah. {#Ne 13:2}

Ver. 11. And the men of Jericho fought against you.] Non pugnarunt, sed clausis portis propugnarunt et restiterunt, saith Vatablus. They shut up their gates and fortified themselves against you; and when their town was taken, it is probable they sold their lives at as dear a rate as they could.

Ver. 12. And I sent the hornet before you.] Crabrones, sive muscam venenatam: Metaphorice de terrore illis incusso, saith Piscator; It is to be metaphorically taken for stinging terrors, struck into the hearts of these Canaanites. But why not literally rather?

But not with thy sword.] But with my hornets.

Ver. 13. And cities which ye built not.] For Hazor only was burnt, {#Jos 11:13} and the rest inhabited by them.

Ver. 14. And put away the gods.] Deastros illos, which some of them secretly worshipped, as they did likewise in the wilderness. {#Am 5:25,26 Ac 7:42,43} So in Josiah’s days, Baal had privily his "Chemarims," or chimney chaplains, yea, those that "worshipped the host of heaven upon the housetops," &c. {#Zep 1:4,5}

Ver. 15. Choose you this day whom ye will serve.] He leaveth them not to their own free choice to do either, but to make proof of their voluntary and professed subjection to the true religion, which would further engage them to constancy in their covenant.

But as for me and my house.] Joshua was not of the mind of most householders in these days, who make no other use of their servants than they do of their beasts; while they may have their bodies to do their service, they care not if their souls serve the devil: these forget that they must answer for those souls, and give an account of their blood.

Ver. 16. God forbid that we should forsake the Lord.] And yet they did thus, not long after Joshua’s death. It is ordinary with the many headed multitude to turn with the stream, to tack about to every wind, to be of the same religion with others their superiors, to keep on the sunny side, wheresoever it be. Thus at Rome in Dioclesian’s time they were Pagans; in Constantine’s, Christians; in Constantius’s, Arians; in Julian’s, Apostates; in Jovinian’s, Christians again; and all this within less than the age of a man. It is therefore "a good thing that the heart be established with grace," {#Heb 13:9} that men may "cleave to God with full purpose," {#Ac 11:23} being "steadfast and unmovable." {#1Co 15:58}

Ver. 17. He it is that brought us up.] Beneficium postulat officium; Mercy requireth duty: deliverance commandeth obedience. But many miscreants, as if God had hired them to be wicked, abuse all his benefits to his dishonour.

Ver. 18. We will also serve the Lord; for he is our God.] To make the Lord to be our God, it is required, saith a reverend man, that with highest estimations, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavours we bestow ourselves upon him: so shall we be in a condition to "serve him acceptably." {#Heb 12:28}

Ver. 19. Ye cannot serve the Lord.] You that are yet unregenerate, and that would fain make a mixture of religions, cannot serve the Lord; for he must be served like himself, that is, truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving; he will not take up with a seeming or slubbering service. "Offer it now to thy prince; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts." {#Mal 1:8}

For he is a holy God.] And requireth to be sanctified in all those that draw near unto him; it will be worse with them else. {#Le 10:3} Neither profaneness nor formal profession will he endure; but least of all idolatry.

For he is a jealous God.] And will not be yoked with idols, neither will he give his glory, which is as his wife, to another. If any cast but a leering look toward it, he shall smart and smoke for so doing.

He will not forgive your transgressions, ] sc., Unless you forego them: or if he do forgive them, yet he may take vengeance, temporal vengeance, of their inventions; {#Ps 99:8} and for that matter their repentance may come too late. {#De 1:37 2Sa 12:16} All this Joshua speaketh, not to weaken but to waken their diligence in God’s service.

Ver. 20. And consume you, after that he hath done you good.] Ingentia beneficia, flagitia, supplicia. From apostates God will take away his own and be gone, {#Ho 2:9} he will curse their blessings, {#Mal 2:2} blast their hopes, make them know the worth of his benefits by the want of them, making them cry out, as #Jer 4:13, "Woe to us! for we are spoiled."

Ver. 21. Nay; but we will serve the Lord.] Only and wholly, for subject and object. This was well resolved, if as well practised. These here were ready to enter into covenant, and so to bind their deceitful hearts to a good abearance, which else would be ready to slip collar.

Ver. 22. Ye are witnesses against yourselves.] In case ye falsify ye shall be self-condemned, and cut of your own mouths God shall judge you: meanwhile conscience shall do its office upon you, as an index, iudex, vindex, accuser, judge, and executioner.

Ver. 23. Now therefore.] Set forthwith upon the work of reformation which you have covenanted.

Put away the strange.] Out of doors with those Balaam’s blocks, those mawmets and monuments of idolatry, those images of jealousy which provoke to jealousy: {#Eze 8:3} throw also all your sinful lusts out of service, and serve the Lord. See #Jos 24:14.

Ver. 24. The Lord our God will we serve.] They bind themselves again to keep touch with God by an unalterable resolution. Vows rightly made and renewed are of singular use to keep the heart within the bounds of obedience, and to make men constant, firm, and peremptory in well doing.

Ver. 25. And set there a statute and an ordinance.] Capita faederis ex Deuteronomio praelegit, saith one; he read them the Articles of the Covenant out of Deuteronomy.

Ver. 26. And Joshua wrote these words.] This whole book, or the most part of it, {see #Jos 1:1} and particularly the Acts of this present Parliament.

Under an oak.] Which was therehence called The Oak or Plain of the Pillar. {#Jud 9:6}

Ver. 27. Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us.] It shall represent your covenant to your consciences, and convince you of singular perfidy, in case you falsify. We read in Livy that a certain governor of the people called Aequi, bade the Roman ambassadors tell their tale to the oak that stood next them, saying that he had somewhat else to do than to give them audience. To whom they replied, Et haec sacrata quercus audiat faedus a vobis violatum, Then let this holy oak hear and bear witness that ye have broken your covenant.

Ver. 28. So Joshua let the people depart.] With their hearts full of joy at the covenant. "For they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire," as #2Ch 15:15.

Ver. 29. Joshua…the servant of the Lord, died.] This was the crown of all his commendation, and a greater title to be engraven on his tomb, than his was, who arrogantly and foolishly styled himself Κοσμοκρατωρ, Monarch of the World. This was Sesostris, king of Egypt, who reigned there in the days of Samson.

Ver. 30. In Timnathserah.] {See Trapp on "Jos 19:50"}

Ver. 31. {See Trapp on "Jos 23:8"}

Ver. 32. Buried they in Shechem.] Where his monument was to be seen in Jerome’s time, as he testifieth in his questions upon Genesis.

Ver. 33. In a hill that pertained to Phinehas.] Or, In Gibeathpineas, the name of a city, bearing his name.

Which was given him.] By the synagogue, saith Vatablus, in an extraordinary way; that, being the high priest, he might be near to Joshua, and not far from the tabernacles where his business lay.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24